I feel obliged to declare a conflict of interest for this review.
Wil Ray, Max Raptor's charismatic front man is my nephew; a young man single-handedly ensuring that the Raybould family name is preserved in the rotting annals of Rock'n'Roll's hall of infamy.
He it is who leads a series of bolshie choruses that announce his band's healthy authority baiting attitude.
The four men from the Midlands are plainly punks at heart but the short songs are packaged with distinctly pre-punk rock dynamics that embrace strong riffs and rousing rebel yells.
The album kicks off with the ironically titled Keep The Peace which immediately grabs the listener firmly by the jugular. The band keep this grip tight for the remaining nine tunes which blast out with a fierce yet focused sense of righteous anger.
From what I can glean from the shouty word play, the overriding message seems to be that we are the blind being led by the blind. There is no sympathy for the little Englander mentality nor is there room for the weak or Old Romantics.
"What you don't know you will never know" is a taunt, in Damage Appreciation, directed at all those too dumb to understand what they are so uptight about.
Although only Golden Age carries an explicit content warning the level of venom provides an uncompromising challenge to those of a more sensitive disposition.
On the band's last album (Mother's Ruin) the song Heavy Hearts showed that Max Raptor are perfectly capable of quiet reflection but there is no such let up in the momentum for this follow up release. In many ways this is a pity as some contrast to the mosh-pit anthems would be welcome.
Still, it can't be denied that there is much in this world to get loud about and the fact that Wil and band of his merry men choose to rage hard so relentlessly serves as a call to arms to the great unwashed rabble of this nation.
