To Escape Death (In Your Arms) is the third single from Pop Rock band The New Romantic Devils off their third album Devil's Got Your Tongue. It was originally recorded by the band in 2015 by the band when rehearsing with Rachel. The song actually dates back to 2005 during recording sessions for Seize the Day with different lyrics and vocals by Holly Ridge but was scrapped. Rachel wrote new lyrics when she heard the song for first time in about five minutes in the studio.
Background
In July 2005 as the band was working on material for the second album A. Monroe, Holly Ridge, and Keith Hudson worked on music for a song titled Fatal Attraction. The original song was seven minutes and 56 seconds long. The song lyrical content as was usual at the time a love ballad written by Ridge to Monroe about their volatile relationship. The original track had a very dark industrial feel to it with a driving drumbeat. The song was put aside as other songs were finished for that project. In September 2005 the song was once again reapproached for the project.  The song had been played a few times live during 2005 shows with audience approval.  The second version of the song with added and changed lyrics by Ridge had now grown to Eight minutes and 48 seconds. The industrial version was scrapped in favor of a more traditional hard rock power ballad feel as it was played live. Archie, Keith, and Holly agreed the song was to long to be played live in its current version, so it was again scrapped. The song was approached for a third time in 2007 by Monroe and Holly with Archie adding a piano part to the beginning and the verses until you get to chorus. There were no drums. Just piano acoustic guitar and the song would build, and then electric guitars would come in. The band was called in to studio in August of 2008 to record a new version of the song. The song had now been trimmed to just at six minutes and 38 seconds. The band discussed just releasing the single as they began discussing going back into studio to record a full album. The song was once again scrapped as the band started to work on new material. The decision to record a new album was also scrapped as Holly quit the band in 2008. Rachel Monroe joined the band in 2014 and the band started rehearsing material and going through demos to get ready to go out on the road and let Rachel get used to singing the material. She listened to the some of the demos in the vault and fell in love with Fatal Attraction now named Can't keep my hands off you. In 2015 the band recorded some demos of some of the old songs with Rachel now on vocals. During these sessions they recorded a version of Can't Keep my Hands off of you (fatal attraction). There was talk of releasing this as an EP session to introduce Rachel but was eventually scrapped. During the recording of the song Rachel, Archie, and Keith restructured the song a little bit and shortened again to Six minutes and 2 seconds.
Recording
To Escape Death was brought out of moth balls in November of 2019 when the band were working on Devil's Got your Tongue sessions. Rachel took the old demo of Fatal Attraction and worked on new lyrics by herself. 25 November 2019 she called Mike McCoy to come to Barn and work with her on the lyrics. They took the ideas of the love song but instead of it being about heartbreak and misery making it about a lover being your warrior and saving you from death. Rachel also leaned on her faith and paralleled it to Christ sacrificing himself to save humanity. The song was recorded in December 2019 with the new lyrics. The song was mixed with the industrial drumbeat added back in underneath the track to help drive the track. The song has become a fan favorite at live performances and usually is used to close out the show during an encore.
Personnel
Archie Monroe- Lead and Rhythm guitar all tracks
Mike McCoy- Lead and Rhythm guitar all tracks
Rachel Monroe- Rhythm guitar, keys, synths, piano all tracks. Lead vocals 1-4, and 6-9, 11 and 12
Peyton Reed- Bass, backing vocals all tracks
Keith Hudson- Drums all tracks, lead vocals track 5 and 10
Produced and engineered by Freddy Spencer