Music Review: Man Raze - Surreal

Well, let me tell you what! I’ve got an unstoppable new rock album sitting in front of me by some unlikely suspects. I first heard the single, “Turn It Up” on Nights With Alice Cooper. This is where I also learned the band, oddly named Man Raze, was made up of Phil Collen of Def Leppard on guitar and lead vocal, Paul Cook of the Sex Pistols on drums, and Simon Laffy who was the bassist in Collen’s pre-Leppard band, Girl. Laffy also plays bass and co-writes songs with Phil Collen in Man Raze.

The first thing I thought when I heard “Turn It Up” was, well, turn it up… and this is what I’d been wishing Def Leppard sounded more like these days. Who knew Phil Collen was this good a singer! Not to slag Def Leppard in any way because they’ve already proven they’re classic, but this punky, gritty, pumped-up anthem rocks like a band with something to prove. So I couldn’t wait to hear the rest of the album and see if it could live up to the hype of the single.

I soon got the chance as a copy of the CD made its way to my mailbox. The album is titled Surreal and it was released on VH1 Classic Records on June 3rd.

As you can see, the cover art leaves a little something to be desired, as it has an all-too-typical generic mysterious crop circle-like symbol with the word “SURREAL” capitalized in X-Filesy-looking characters in the center with a rusty redish brownish green hue. But get past the sub-par cover art (which doesn’t much matter on a CD, but sure would if it’s on vinyl), and you’ll be rewarded with some top-notch rock and roll from the instant you press play.

Article Author: Mike Newman

Mike lives in Brooklyn and is Associate Producer and Writer for Alice Cooper's syndicated classic rock radio show, Nights With Alice Cooper, and has his own radio show on East Village Radio called Beyond Beyond is Beyond. …

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