Max Raptor: L to R- Tom Garrett (bass), Wil Ray (vox), Matt Stephenson (drums), JB Wilcox (guitar)
The long-awaited debut Max Raptor mini album, Portraits, hits the streets today.
In case you didn’t know, Max Raptor are four young men from The Midlands and UK’s finest Indie-metal punksters to boot.
If I sound a little biased, this is down to the fact that the band’s charismatic front man, ‘Wil Ray’, is my nephew.
The album is out on Naim Edge records and is produced by Dan Weller and Justin Weller, respectively guitarist and vocalist from the now defunct UK metal band SikTh.
It features eight quality tunes which Kerrang magazine call “heavy slabs of rocking punk” .
Carolina is the most obvious power punk number although this is the sound of a generation born too late to experience the rabble rousing Brit-Punk spirit of ’76/’77 first hand so they also take on board hard-boiled metal, classic rock and a hint of screamo.
The result is potent blast of articulate rebellion backed up by rowdy yobbo chants.
I have seen the band two times, on both occasions they produced performances full of energy and commitment in relatively inauspicious settings. The first was in a muddy field in Derbyshire as part of the Y-Not Festival, the second was a show in December 2008 at a freezing Bar Fly in Birmingham. I remember musing that if they play like that in such inhospitable surroundings, what would they be capable of in half way decent venues?
Since then, they have gained valuable experience of more glamorous gigs; especially as a result of landing a prestigious support slot to Punk survivors The Stranglers last year.
This constant gigging has made their sound even tighter and Wil has effectively nailed the art of channelling his rage into songs that positively drip with indignation and venom. “We talk about cheery things like alcohol abuse and domestic violence” he says in an interview for Rock Sound in which he also highlights the fact that the songs are deliberate rants about politicians’ abuse of power and how we ordinary citizens struggle to make our voices heard.
Album cover of 'Portraits'
Portraits is not a full length album nor are Max Raptor yet the finished article but the full throttle, go for the jugular, thrust of these tunes is a statement of genuine intent. All their justified railing against the powers that be is both the band’s strength and weakness. It makes for a rousing series of rebel yells against ‘the system’ but a few declarations of intent alongside the statements of dissent would give a more complete state of the nation address. Maybe they are saving this for the follow-up!
For ‘Portraits’, they have selected well established live favourites and added more in the same mould.
Newer songs like The King Is Dead , Obey The Whips and Patron Saint (Of Nothing) illustrate a healthy distrust of authority in all its forms. My personal favourite is The Great And The Good which, along with Ghosts, also appeared on a four track EP last year and features the rousing rally cry “I pin this badge upon chest”. In a just world, this would be the song to help them make it big.
The band hit the road again in May for a UK tour from 3rd – 21st so you should catch them if you can in their natural habitat.
Hopefully a world conquering tour of Europe (and Italy in particular!) will follow.
Here are two videos of songs to be found on Portraits.
The first is a minimal acoustic version of Ghosts featuring a guest appearance of Freddie the dog:
The second is the video for the albums’ closing track The Alarm using clips from the 1922 silent movie masterpiece , Nosferatu :
