Time for words on another American rock band with Michigan’s Raptor School being the reason this time around to put pen to paper and, like the good beer drinking boys that they are, they deliver a solid, if somewhat staid, performance.
“Geiger Counter” would appear to be the subject of a reissue presumably because the world missed it on first release. That’s hardly surprising given the state of the music industry these days. Either that or people just don’t get concept albums any more even if they have wholly adopted the videogame mentality and there were a good few times during this album when I wondered if it had actually been composed with the videogame market in mind. However, the flashes of humour – such as in “The Nipple Will Kill You” – suggested that these amateur musicians were not taking themselves too seriously.
There is plenty of weight in the playing, as you might expect, if little in the way of real virtuosity and singer Ryan Darnell often struggles to keep up with the pace. In his defence, at least he never resorted to autotuning and his flawed voice injects a degree of honesty that is, in truth, appealing. His best performance is to be found in the best song of this album. The long and languorous “Star” takes a nine minute walk through all the clichés and yet still manages to be completely convincing.
The album is available from CD Baby.