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. Continue reading →
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