10 Viral Metal Bands That Didn't Stay Popular

In 2011, Wandsworth teenager Barney Hall wrote into Kerrang! magazine one day, singing the praises of the then-recently released debut mini-album from Max Raptor – Portraits. The gesture won over the Max Raptor ultras, with the news quickly travelling to frontman Wil Ray, who in response pitched the idea of playing a show at young Mr. Hall’s home.

This was a mistake on Wil’s part.

Meeting the requisite and legally-binding parameter of 1,000 Facebook likes – thanks to significant backing by Kerrang!, Rock Sound, and an over-excited podcast fan page – Max Raptor did indeed play a live-streamed show direct from Barney’s bedroom, much to Wil’s clear chagrin.

Following the buzz of Portraits and the bedroom show, the group were a pretty hot commodity in the UK underground, scoring a support slot for Dinosaur Pile-Up, plus appearances at Y Not and Hit the Deck Festivals, before capping things off with the excellent full-debut effort Mother’s Ruin in 2013.

Despite all this though, the group couldn't break through that glass ceiling, and momentum eventually fizzled out for the act, with 2016’s self-titled effort suffering from a rather subdued response. A lonely social media post in August 2018 proclaimed a new album was in the making, but it has been radio silence from the band ever since.