Man-Raze (Phil Collen of Def Leppard's Side-Project)

Anyone heard them before? Let's get it right out of the way: The band name is horrible.

With that said, they seem to be really good. Phil sings in the band, and anyone who has heard Def Leppard's b-sides has probably heard him on a few. He's got a really good voice, very solid rock sound, much like a Rod Stewart, I'd say. Anyway, Man-Raze also features Paul Cook (Sex Pistols) and Simon Laffy (Girl). It sounds a bit too easy to say, but Man-Raze (what I've heard so far) really sound like a mix of Def Leppard (rock), Girl (glam) and Sex Pistols (punk/ska) with some modern rock thrown in.

Last year they released a single for the song "Skin Crawl." The single featured the title track, another called "You're So Wrong," a remix of the title track, and an odd "instrumental dub" of a song called "Running Me Up," which sounded like a reggae song. That song confuses me, and it's supposed to be on the album. Weird. Haha. "Skin Crawl" and "You're So Wrong" are really good, though (links below).

The band's debut, Surreal, is coming out in September. I'm looking forward to it. They also just released some new sample clips:

SKIN CRAWL *
TURN IT UP *
YOU'RE SO WRONG *
CONNECTED TO YOU
SHADOW MAN

And then...

RUNNIN' ME UP (INSTRUMENTAL DUB) *

* Full songs. The rest are clips.

a LOT of modern thrown in. which isn't altogether bad... but i just can't get into it in this case. can't explain why. i never was a huge Leppard fan either though.

mc666 wrote:

a LOT of modern thrown in. which isn't altogether bad... but i just can't get into it in this case. can't explain why. i never was a huge Leppard fan either though.

A lot, eh? I won't argue with that. And it's not really got a Def Leppard sound, at least not that signature Leppard sound. You can just tell that Phil is in Def Leppard. His harmonies are very Def Leppard-like, even if more raw on these tracks.

Bump, because it's a slow day in work...

Anyone have this album? Thoughts?

I have the album. I dig it. It doesn't really flow stylistically, though. Some are rock tunes, some more punky, alt-rock, then there are these reggae influences. It's just kind of odd. But it's a good album, and you can get it real cheap these days.

Wonder if the upcoming album will be any better.