Manraze – Lock, Stock & Barrel (Complete Recordings 2008-2011), 5CD Box Set

Manraze – Lock, Stock & Barrel (Complete Recordings 2008-2011), 5CD Box Set
HNE Recordings
Release date: 29/05/26
Review by: Jon Deaux
Should be a 7. Kept playing it. Now it’s an 8, and I’m Furious about it.

I should hate this. Phil Collen of Def Leppard, with his shinyness, with his hairspray, with his riffs that are designed to survive a nuclear bomb. And yet, there I am, nodding my head like a muppet, wondering what the bloody hell is going on. 

First off. Paul Cook of The Sex Pistols. The band that made your mum cry, and your dad call the popo. Here he is, banging away on the drums. In a band that’s been compared to The Police, and compared to The Police, they’re bloody awful, but so is a sparkling wine when compared with Champagne. 

And then it gets annoyingly good. You press play. 

Disc One, SURREAL, kicks off with ‘This Is,’ and suddenly Phil Collen is off like a shot, with riffs that are lean, streamlined, and annoyingly good. Not bloated. Not indulgent. Just… right. Not asking for respect. Demanding it. Taking it. And daring you to do anything about it. Paul Cook doesn’t play along with these songs. He propels them. Like he’s got something to prove. Which he doesn’t. Not any more. Not with this lot. That’s the beauty of it. This doesn’t sound like a nostalgia trip. This sounds like agitprop. ‘Skin Crawl’ is when things get a little frantically alive. Like they remember they’re allowed to get a little nasty. Even if only in short bursts.

Disc Two: PUNKFUNKROOTSROCK. An album title that reads like something that’s been bellowed in a pub in the middle of an argument, and something that’s been misspelled in an email to someone. The album opens with ‘Over My Dead Body’ and I want it played at my funeral, not because it’s a sad song or anything like that, but because it’s an aggressive song, and I want my funeral to leave people with a slight uneasy feeling. ‘Get Action’ is shamelessly ripped off from The Clash. With a wink. And no shame whatsoever.

And then there’s ‘Fire.’ Originally by Jimi Hendrix is a subject that’s best left alone. To cover Jimi Hendrix is like desecrating his grave. BUT Manraze plays it like they’re a band that needs to be put out of its misery. And it’s great, precisely because they shouldn’t be.

Disc three is completely instrumental. Not a single note was sung. Not a single pretension. Not a single chance of failure. Just three guys paying attention to what they’re doing. ‘Turn It Up’ without the pretension does it a hell of a lot more justice than any press release they’ve put out so far. It’s tight without being stiff, loose without being sloppy—the sound of a band that knows when to keep its mouth shut and its ears open.

The Live & Unplugged disc is where it either succeeds or it doesn’t. And it does. The Water Rats and Spitz recordings sound like they’re just one bad decision away from complete and utter chaos—in other words, just like this kind of music should sound. Cook sounds like he’s at home in the midst of it all, like order ever being an option was never part of the plan.

‘You’re So Wrong’ is the most criminally underheard piece of music out of the whole lot. I have come to terms with the reality that I am the only human being on this earth who will have this opinion, and you know what? That’s perfectly fine with me. The beauty of good art lies in its subjective nature.

And then there are the odd bits and bobs, the ‘Unreleased & Unleashed’ bits. Half of it is gold; half of it is trouble. ‘I Surrender’ and ‘Original Sin’ are loud enough to make one wish that this band had ever blown up as big as they might have. And the reason why they never did is that, of course, it’s all about timing, luck, and an industry that likes to have boxes well and truly painted and edges well and truly smoothed.

The liner notes by Jerry Ewing are surprisingly good. He’s managed to get the band to open up, and they have something to say that isn’t just old battle tales.

Five discs, fifty-nine tracks, a band that shouldn’t work. A punk and NWOBHM leftovers walk into a bar, the start of a joke, and before you get to the punchline, there’s an argument, there’s a brawl. ‘Lock, Stock and Barrel’ is the sound of said argument getting out of hand, getting messy, getting loud, and somehow, miraculously, working.

Punk is not giving a fuck about what other people think. Five discs is giving alot of fucks about what other people think. These are fundamentally different statements. These statements are different in every conceivable way. Manraze has somehow, someway, managed to make both of these statements true at once. And I think it’s wonderful. I think it’s frightening. And here’s the review again:

I went into this review with many preconceptions. Box sets are for people who’ve given up on the world. Supergroups are the sum of several diminished parts. The guitarist of Def Leppard has no business being in the same room as the drummer of the Sex Pistols without an apology.

But you know what you actually get? Conflict, egos, a touch of sheen which makes you cringe but also makes you dance, makes you bite your tongue, makes you wonder if anybody involved in this is actually bothered enough to bother putting any effort into it at all.

And that’s what makes it work.

You’d call it rubbish, loudly and in public. BUT, you’d take it home, play it, enjoy it, and yet you’d never breathe a word about any of this.

TRACK LISTING

DISC ONE

Surreal

1  This Is

2  Turn It Up

3  Runnin’ Me Up

4  Every Second of Every Day

5  Spinning Out

6  Can’t Find My Own Way

7  Skin Crawl

8  Low

9  Connected To You

10  Halo

11  It’s Entertainment

12  Shadow Man

DISC TWO

PunkFunkRootsRock

1  Over My Dead Body

2  I C U In Everything

3 All I Wanna Do

4  Closer To Me

5  Lies Lies All Lies

6  Get Action

7  Edge Of the World

8  Dreamland

9  Fire

10  I, Superbiker

11  Bittersweet

12  Dog Bite

DISC THREE

Instrumental

1  Turn It Up – Surreal – Instrumental

2  I Surrender – Single – Instrumental

3  Skin Crawl – Surreal – Instrumental

4  Original Sin – Exclusive Bonus Track – Instrumental

5 Can’t Find My Own Way – Surreal – Instrumental

6  Low – Surreal – Instrumental

7  Runnin’ Me Up – Surreal – Instrumental

8  Dreamland – PunkFunkRootsRock – Instrumental

9  Halo – Surreal – Instrumental

10  I C U In Everything – PunkFunkRootsRock – Instrumental

11  Bittersweet – PunkFunkRootsRock – Instrumental

DISC FOUR

Live & Unplugged

1  This Is – Electric (Live in Burbank)

2  Low – Electric (Live in Burbank)

3  Entertainment – Electric (Live in Burbank)

4  Connected – Electric (Live in Burbank)

5  This Is – Electric (Live at the Water Rats)

6  Connected – Electric (Live TRACK LISTING

DISC FIVE

Unreleased & Unleashed

1  I Surrender

2  Take On the World – PunkFunkRootsRock – Instrumental

3  Turn It Up – Deep Dub Instrumental

4  Halo – SPX Crawlers Mix

5  Immaculate

6  Skin Crawl – SPX Crawlers Mix

7  Low – Dance

8  Get Up – Dance

9  Original Sin (Live at the Water Rats)

7  Halo – Electric (Live at the Spitz)

8  Runnin’ Me Up – Electric (Live at the Spitz)

9  Fire – Electric (Live at the Spitz)

10  Every Second of Every Day – Acoustic

11  Turn It Up – Acoustic

12  Can’t Find My Own Way – Acoustic (Gary Crowley Show)

13  Halo – Acoustic

14  You’re So Wrong – Acoustic

15  All I Wanna Do – Acoustic

Disclaimer: This review is solely the property of Jon Deaux and Ever Metal. It is strictly forbidden to copy any part of this review, unless you have the strict permission of both parties. Failure to adhere to this will be treated as plagiarism and will be reported to the relevant authorities.

https://www.youtube.com/@ManRazeOfficial

https://www.cherryred.co.uk/manraze-lock-stock-barrel-complete-recordings-2008-2011-5cd-box-set