#RoadtoBOA2019 – Reaper X

It’s that time of year again, when in the run-up to Bloodstock we endeavour to interview every band gracing the SOPHIE, New Blood and Jägermeister stages from 8th – 11th August 2019. This means you’ve got a chance to read up on all your favourite bands set to play over the weekend and decide which new ones you’ll want to check out.

As ever, we’re predicting some horrible clashes because, true to form, there are some great bands across all three stages so you should start planning who you want to see.

Our thanks to all the bands for taking the time out to answer our questions!

Reaper X – New Blood Stage, Saturday

Simple things first – where are you guys from?

The band originated from Corby Northamptonshire but Jake our bass player is from Rushden and Carl our drummer is from Spalding.

How long have you been playing together as a band?

We have been going for about 4 years now. We started out under the name “Reaper” but it became clear quite quickly that we needed our own identity and some individuality as “Reaper” seemed quite common in the music scene so we adopted the X and it’s stuck ever since.

Where does the name of the band come from?

Originally we were very keen on having just one word as a band name as it made us think of the giant bands like Metallica, Megadeth etc. We had the name Reaper for about two years but so many bands were claiming it and we were also getting confused with other bands, so we changed it to Reaper-X as we loved the name Reaper but wanted to be totally original. As far as we know we are the only Reaper-X.

Describe your music. What makes you unique?

Our music doesn’t fit just one genre of metal which we feel makes us stand out. We have songs that are thrash then we have some that are metalcore and we even have a ballad thrown in there. We don’t want a specific tag that defines us as this or that, we just write music that we think sounds great and that hopefully the fans enjoy as well. We work to our strengths as a band and we don’t try and force ourselves to be entirely one thing or another. We just let it flow and enjoy whatever happens next.

What’s your live show like? Why are people going to watch you instead of another band?

We put a lot of effort into our live show and it is planned out for each and every minute of our set, we love high energy and love to try and move about as much as possible. Crowd interaction is our bread and butter as it’s the fans that make this possible and we like to make sure that they are involved as much as possible from start to finish.  We want fans to be left speechless by our performance and to leave a lasting impression from the get go.

Have you been to Bloodstock before? What did you think?

Jake our bassist is the only member that has attended Bloodstock and he speaks very highly of it. We are all very excited and humbled that we will be able to play a festival as prestigious as Bloodstock.

Which M2tM region did you win, or did you come through other channels?

We competed in the Northamptonshire region of Metal to the Masses. This is our third year competing in the competition and it’s always good fun,. It’s great to see the support for our local scene and we believe Northamptonshire has an unbelievable metal scene that we are incredibly proud to be a part of.

Can you put into 10 words or fewer how it felt when you realised you were heading to Bloodstock?

Like all of our collective heads had exploded.

What sort of setlist can we expect?

It will be high energy from start to finish and will include heart stopping riffs and fun times for all!

Which other bands do you most hope you’re not squished up next to so you can see them play?

We are good friends with Bloodstock mainstagers Krysthla so it would be good to see them. Being massive thrash fans it would also be great to see Anthrax. Our vocalist Scott is a big Cancer Bats fan and we all love Parkway Drive so the possibilities are endless.

What are you working on at the moment?

We currently are writing album number two and are roughly about 2 songs in. We are so fired up about Bloodstock that we put it on the back burner for a little bit but now we are slowly getting back in the studio to carry on.

What’s the wildest thing you’ve seen or done at a live show?

We did an release show when our debut album Rise came out and the only way we can explain it was that it was chaos. Jake ended up on someone’s shoulders mid-set and a fan got up and was literally moshing right next to our drummer. A mosh pit broke out and people were literally near enough going over the bar. It was like one of those good old thrash gigs from back in the day and words don’t really do it much justice.

What drink do you throw back to get yourself fired up before going on stage?

Mark: I no longer drink so it will be council pop for me!
Scott: Newcastle Brown Ale.
Drew: I literally will drink anything.
Jake: Bottled Hobgoblin.
Carl: Morgans Spiced with Coke.

Reaper X: facebook | twitter | instagram | youtube

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E. Goodman
E. Goodman
July 17, 2019 9:27 PM

Saw these guys a few times now, in Northampton and also in Peterborough, didn’t think much based on first impressions but when they came out and started to play, they were something else.
These boys are gonna be huge, Mark my words.

Mosh
Admin
Reply to  E. Goodman
July 22, 2019 9:56 PM

Great to hear! Yeah, I’ve encountered bands like that before. They look nothing special then by the time they finish their set you want to buy all their merch!