Songfacts®:

• This is the title track of British indie group Kasabian's fourth studio album. According to the Songfacts encyclopaedia, the Velociraptor was a breed of dinosaur that existed approximately 71 to 75 million years ago during the later part of the Cretaceous Period. Guitarist Serge Pizzorno explained to NME why the band named the album after the ancient creature. "They're very much like a little band, this gang," he said. "And so are we."
  
  The Kasabian chief songwriter added: "They were the only dinosaur that could defeat the T Rex. I like the sentiment; these little dog creatures that stuck together and they were the only thing that could defeat the evil T Rex."
• So why did the band add the exclamation mark? Pizzorno explained: "It's because it should be screamed - maximum output1 You don't just say that word, you scream that word."
• The song uses the brutal Cretaceous Period predator as a metaphor for an unhinged individual who's "gonna kill ya..gonna eat ya." Pizzorno told Q magazine: "It's the natural end to the first half of the album. A great place to flip the record over. Musically it's like 'Vlad...'s older brother. It's an adrenaline surge, meant to represent this frightening force bearing down on you, whatever that may be."
• Vocalist Tom Meighan told NME the song is, "our 'Smells Like Teen Spirit'. It's that one where everyone goes mental."
  Pizzorno added: "We've really got into Nirvana. You can't do Nirvana, but we can take the spirit of. ('..Teen spirit') and also add in the Midland rave thing, and that almost Prodigy, 'Charley says..' chorus."