Description

‘Animal Man’ was the follow-up to the impressive debut "First Visit", featuring a thrilling collection of sharp speed metal/rock'n'roll songs by some compared to a heavier version of Motörhead, with a techno edge to it. Rogue Male was in fact one of the first bands to establish the crossover genre, which mixed various musical inspirations to form a completely new style. The band was formed in 1985 in Belfast, UK by Jim Lyttle, who earlier worked with groups such as Pretty Boy Floyd, The Gems, Pictures and Visa. The first line-up featured former Handsome Beasts guitarist Phil Ashton, drummer Steve Kingsley (ex-Deep Machine), bassist Chris Aylmer (ex-Samson and M-80) and Lyttle on vocals. Aylmer didn't stay in the band for long (he departed to the famous pop act Simple Minds and later on Head Over Heels) and was soon replaced by Phillipe Clark. Rogue Male begun recording their debut album Music For Nations, however during the process another personal changes occurred in the band – Clark was replaced by former Le Griffe bassist Kevin Collier and Ashton gave his position to guitarist John Fraiser-Binnie (ex-Dirty Tricks). Finally, "First Visit" is released in 1985. Consisting of nine extremely catchy and melodic tracks, the record showcased the best elements of metal and rock'n'roll put together. However, perhaps the most intriguing element of this album was its cover, presenting Rogue Male's frontman as a cyborg humanoid, revealing his true appearance. The graphics were very suggestive and quite shocking at the time, but they also showed the band's fascination with cybernetic, post-nuclear motives, as if taken straight from a "Mad Max" movie. Their live performances only confirmed this fascination – all the band members wore impressive futuristic outfits, complete with spiked furry vests and camouflage with faces covered in proper make-up. For a short while Kingsley was replaced by John Hamilton, but eventually Swiss drummer Danny Fury took the job (although the drums on Rogue Male's second album were entirely done by a session musician, Charlie Morgan). The group begun working on their follow-up album in 1986. Preceded by an EP called "Belfast", "Animal Man" featured a new portion of dynamic metal/rock'n'roll collaboration, with even sharper compositions and stronger sound. The lyrics, same as on the debut, oscillated around motorcycles, war, fury and a rather rare subject for heavy metal – unemployment. Rogue Male finally got noticed by the media and was invited to the "ECT" heavy metal TV show, where they played a memorable set. Right about that time the band welcomed a new guitarist in their ranks – Julian Nicholas – to back them up during live shows. Unfortunately, the second album did not sell as well as expected and the band soon parted ways with Music For Nations. After recording a few new demos, which failed to secure a new contract for the band, Rouge Male officially split up. With printed innersleeve Track listing: 1. Progress 2. L.U.S.T. 3. Take No Shit 4. You're On Fire 5. The Real Me 6. Animal Man 7. Belfast 8. Job Centre 9. Low Rider 10. The Passing