A debut album from the United Kingdom: I received Living Without Death’s Permission from a promotion agency. The band is named RXPTRS, which is pronounced as “Raptors”. Their debut album has been released on 24th June 2022.
RXPTRS – About The Artists
RXPTRS are a band from Bristol, England. The quintet as been founded in 2018. The band members are singer Simon Roach, the guitarists Ian Chadderton and Harley Watson, bassist Sam Leworthy and drummer Mat Capper. In 2019, they released a debut EP, I. In their songs, they typically blend punk, rock and metal elements.
RXPTRS – Living Without Death’s Permission – Track by Track
The ten track album lasts 43 minutes.
1. Burning Pages
The album opens with the powerful Burning Pages, which is a nice hard rock song with some alternative textures. The middle part comes with a lot of screaming, while Simon Roach is very present and catching in the chorus.
2. Rock Bottom (Is a Stepping Stone)
The second song is one of five tracks, which have already been released before the album. I like the quick guitar lines and the versatile styles on the vocal side. Spoken words, screaming, melodic parts, the band shows a wide range here (again). Nonetheless, I feel that they are majorly a good listen in the melodic sections.
3. Dead Awake (Pretty as the Drugs We Take)
The variety of vocal sounds and atmospheres turns Dead Awake (Pretty as the Drugs We Take) to a very theatric listen.Here, it the changes sometimes feel a bit of confusing to me, though.
4. Demons in My Headphones
The fourth song is one of the highlights of the album to me. The song is driven by a straight force on the drumming and bass side. The plot of the song is a bit smoother and straighter, which leads to a better listen in by point of view.
5. Collapse
The chorus has a lot of potential that people are swaying to its melody, while the long guitar parts rather attract the headbangers. Nice work on the guitar and drums as well – Collapse is a really fluent and good listen.
6. Gutterflies
The campaign promoting the album Living Without Death’s Permission started with this one, Gutterflies. The song comes with one of the best choruses of the album, which overall leads to a great, cinematic listen.
7. The Death Rattle
The Death Rattle starts with an almost fourty second listen, before the RXPTRS significantly raise the level of speed and fire out their melodies. The song is extremely entertaining. It is full of rock’n’roll and there seems to be something surprising happening all the time. There are even some background singers who feel like a choir. In orther tracks, this kind of arrangement somehow felt chaotic, but I feel the guys to a good job here.
8. Cold Ground
The long instrumental and dramatic parts of Cold Ground give this eighth album member a very epic touch. A great way to present the instrumental skills of the British.
9. The Frail
The Frail is a nice track, indeed. I gladly take the very slow and quiet bridge, which adds a new touch to the album.
10. Let Me Die How I Want
The closer of the RXPTRS debut album is a seven minute listen. Not just due to the sheer duration, this song is special. There are a lot of quiet, almost intimate moments in this listen, before the back is going back to their rocking foundation. Superb finale.
RXPTRS – Living Without Death’s Permission – Spotify
Here is Living Without Death’s Permission on Spotify:
RXPTRS – Living Without Death’s Permission – My View
The press information about the RXPTRS is full of positive press quotes. This feels to be really well-deserved, the band recorded a really nice debut album. I feel it is a bit of sad that five songs have already been released, but this is not too unusual at your very first album. Some songs are pushing a bit too much, but overall, the Bristol guys create a characteristic and good-to-listen-to sound.
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