Max Raptor - Mother's Ruin

(CD Album Review)

***1/2

If you can't wait for another Billy Talent album, listen to this!

Max Raptor ***1/2 is a name that has been hanging around for a while now, but how many of us could say we know their material well. The new album 'Mother's Ruin' is an album that depicts a glass of milk with blood in it on the front, is a good example of what the bands is capable of doing. The album opens with 'Back of a barrel Wave' which is a cross between Billy Talent and Rise Against. I would call Max Raptor Emo / Post-Punk but they have hints of Pop Punk in the underline of the music. This opening track is very well put together like second track 'Taming of the Shrewd' and are both an good view of a band with something to say and that can put it discreetly into their music, even though at times their message does come out stronger on certain tracks.

When they do come on strong their message is launched at you like an express train that has had it's break stuck down with cement, this song like other songs on the album could have easierly been written by Billy Talent. So I think that the band take a great deal of influences from this American purky Pop Punk merchants. 'England Breathes' clogs a long nicely with a slight twentieth century chorus that rings in your ears and makes the track grow on you like a fungus. You can imagine people in a hot a sweaty venue singing out every word of this song.

Fourth tack 'Grace and Favours' is very commercial while single 'Breakers' has hints of Oxfordshire band Crackout to it. The sound and songwriter to this song has a real American Post-Punk sound to it and you can just imagine Crackout frontman Steven Eagles writing like this one. This is one of the best tracks on the album and really stands out, I have always like Grunge esq Post-Punk like this.

This song also has a real American costal feel to it and a slight Rise Against vibe again like 'Evangeline' which is very similar to this song as well. By this point in the album you realise that Max Raptor do add their own distinctive sound to their music that goes throughout their material on the album. So this is a band that already know their own identity. Well if your not talking about the band spoken word almost rap on one of the tracks which is totally ghastly.

'Heavy Hearts' is one of the slowest tracks on the album and sounds a lot like We are the Ocean's later tracks, if it was slowed down. This song also mixes up mainstream Pop influences to make a great commercial song. The album's speed is picked back up with 'Must work Harder' and title track 'Mother's Ruin' which are two of the strongest songs on the whole album.

We wonder why these tracks have been kept to so late on the album, it's a real shame because a lot of people listening to it might have not got this far in. Both these songs are simple and very catchy and could have easierly been released as singles. Last track 'Pioneers' is also quite good and has again a Rise Against feel to it. This album has some quite good songs on it, but I would not buy it because I would rather buy so of the bands that some of the tracks sound like but if your fans of Billy Talent or Rise Against I would strongly advise you to purchase this because it's a great interlude until their next albums come out.

Review by Dan Devour