Review of album by Martin Popoff, taken from his book " The Collectors Guide to Heavy Metal - Volume 1: The Seventies"

Max Webster - Max Webster
(Anthem '75)
Max Webster was the be all and end all of Canadian rock bands - end of
story. Descended from planet Sarnia to emanate revolutionary wisdoms
from heretofore undiscovered creases of the brain, lead artisan and
spiritual guide Kim Mitchell, lyricist Pye Dubois, bassist Mike Tilka,
and soon to be ex-drummer Paul Kersey gleefully assaulted our senses and
sensibilities with this cosmic good luck talisman of provocative
thought, major chops, and self-diagnosed schizophrenia. Like wise sages
from the past and seekers of the new, Max Webster infused a molten core
of then contemporary hard rock with a pure-intentioned,
mankind-embracing Zappa-esque insight, along with ambitious, fresh,
melody-blessed arrangements which took progressive rock beyond its
pretensions into crystal blue cottage-rimming waters. And this was a
debut record. Max Webster lived on the edge of probability no matter
where they built camp, be it technical metal (Hangover), straight-up
hard rock (Only Your Nose Knows), prog metal (Coming Off The Moon),
wistful eccentricity (Toronto Tontos) or lush melodic pastures (Summer
Turning Blue). The wild thing about this record is that it floats miles
beyond any simple comparisons. It rocks on many tangents, stirs the soul
on many more, yet never throughout its multiple directives, sounds like
the work of any other band. Max Webster wasn't merely flashing wisdom
beyond its years, it was shooting from their collective palmistry, like
Blue Oyster Cult lasers, wisdom beyond anyone's years, while somehow
managing to dive right into the pool of everyday human endeavour,
imperfections and all, the band never acting exclusive, aristocratic or
above folly and fallibility. Eminently confusing but effortlessly
enjoyed, Max there-hence and ergo played its debut hand, quickly
establishing itself as a challenge to tried and true rock conventions,
wielding an (illogically) strong, forceful, attainable statement swirled
with ambiguity and disorientation. One of the greatest under-rated
artistic achievements from the musical fringes. Note: US copies have
different front and back cover art and are much rarer than the Canadian
version.