The blistering Louisville punkers in White Reaper are unbalanced in a very good way
White Reaper is known for the scorching power of its onstage attack. The band generates a thick, throbbing musical pulse that blends interlocking rhythmic figures and sinuous lead lines played simultaneously at an ear-splitting volume, while the group turns the stage into an obstreperous mosh pit with its uncontained approach. The quartet—guitarist/vocalist Tony Esposito, keyboardist Ryan Hater, bassist Sam Wilkerson and drummer Nick Wilkerson—is rolling down the highway on the way to a gig in Detroit, its phone conversation as energetic as its music.
“We love to bounce around and bump into each other when we’re onstage,” says Esposito. “I accidently gave Sam a bloody nose the other night.”
Hater chimes in: “I fall off the stage all the time. I lose all control when I’m playing.”
The band’s debut album, White Reaper Does It Again, is as intense as its live shows, cramming 12 bursts of furious, punk-fueled mayhem into 34 minutes. It’s loud and full of infuriatingly catchy, distortion-drenched guitar hooks, sinister sci-fi keyboard accents and a rhythm section tough enough to shatter concrete. The band’s sound has hints of the Ramones, ’60s Britpop, ’70s thrash and neo-classical rockers like Ty Segall, all delivered in WR’s own inimitable highly charged style.
“We all agree that the Ramones are the best band ever,” says Hater. “We don’t think of any band or era when we’re making songs, but we’re a four-piece, so those influences just kinda happen.”
“I have arrangements in mind when I write the songs,” says Esposito, “but everybody puts a bit of their own flavor into them. When we have enough good songs, we find a studio and go for it.”
“The music just does its own thing,” says Hater. “There’s no conscious thought about how we want to sound. We just make up songs and play ’em.”
—j. poet
