In 1980s America, heavy metal was reigning supreme. The big hair bands, with their sugary-pop tunes to appeal the girlies and their monster riffing to get the guys interested, ruled the charts. And one band dominated them all…DEF LEPPARD. Hailing from Britain, a country with whom the American youth have had a love affair since the Beatles, the Leps defined the sound of a generation, first knocking out heavy metal with thick vocal harmonies four years before Motley Crue would grab America's attention with their ground-breaking too Fast for Love LP.

Were they even a hair metal band?
Most die-hard Leppard fans will say no, but I am a diehard Leppard fan and I don't give a rip!
Yes, they were: Many bands openly admitted to Leppard's influence on their work, with members of Warrant, Motley Crue, and L.A. Guns amongst others later playing on tribute albums to the Leps. These bands sound suspiciously similar to Def Leppard, and no one questions that they are hair metal bands through and through. Def Leppard's hair did get pretty big at times, and the loud guitars with pop tunes on the subject of girls meant that they bore all the trademarks of the genre.
No, they weren't: The Leps have never been seen in make-up or spandex, and their hair has for the most part stayed smaller than their (small) waistlines. Unlike most hair metal bands, Def Leppard sing on a range of subjects without falling on their face, with songs such as Gods of War carrying an ethical message without the usual accompanying cheese factor. Def Leppard were around before hair metal and have outlasted it. Slang, a triumphant effort creatively, released in 1996, bore no hint of hairspray, and whilst it reflected current trends, it was also a genuine artistic attempt at branching out, proving the Leppard could change its spots. Before then, Def Leppard had always been more diverse than the typical hair band, whether it was the clean-guitar driven pop of "Hysteria", the glammy, less distorted stomp of "Armageddon It" or "Excitable", or their forays into the epic ("Overture", "White Lightning").
But, at the end of the day, to pontificate about their status as glam metal or hard rock is hair-splitting (no pun intended), and more than that, incredibly lame.

What's the story then? There's plenty about this on the net already, but here's it in a nutshell: Bunch of Sheffield lads release two albums before going blockbuster with their third. Millions of copy bands arise and Def Leppard's drummer loses an arm. They soldier on but when their magnum opus Hysteria is released five years later, they are all but forgotten. The sheer quality of the album propels them back to the top, becoming one of the biggest hard rock albums ever and the mother of all hair metal records. They tragically lose a guitarist to alcohol but return triumphantly another five years later with Adrenalize, which took the Hysteria sound and made it at once heavier and more polished. The album was initially even more of a triumph than its predecessor, with lead-off single Let's Get Rocked narrowly missing the UK number 1 slot, and the album topping charts worldwide. The tide of fashion turned against them in the early '90s, ending their reign as biggest band in the world, but a string of excellent albums by the band and a committed fan base have kept sales in the millions to this day.
It is a brutal injustice that Leppard are so forgotten by the world's press now when their success is considered. With around 45 million units sold worldwide over a 20 year career, Def Leppard should be in the league of revered veterans occupied by the Rolling Stones and Aerosmith. Def Leppard, however, have never been cool. They never won many awards or respect from the press. Instead, they knocked out (and continue to knock out) quality records that set sales records. Indeed, they were not just big by rock standards; in the year Hysteria took off, only Michael Jackson's Bad outsold it. This had been the same situation in 1983 with Pyromania (and Jacko's Thriller).

Are they any good then? 18 million people can't be wrong, can they? Errr… actually, looking at the charts of late… yes they can! Still, in Leppard's case, they weren't. You won't find a band who nails the big hooks/ heavy riffs combination better.

Best album? Ignore what anyone else tells you, the best CD is Adrenalize. The lyrics, with their tongue-in-cheek British humour, are the most fun the band have ever put out. The moments of clean guitar on Hysteria are replaced with distortion, so even though the pop element is more in evidence than ever before, there's no question of wimping out. There are storming hard rockers in "Personal Property" and "Tear it Down", a great ballad for the lovesick in "Have You Ever Needed Someone so Bad", and a sing-along anthem if ever there was one in "I Wanna Touch U". Then there's the great pop of "Stand Up (Kick Love into Motion)", two enormously sing-able singles in "Let's Get Rocked" and "Make Love like a Man" (appreciate the humour in these or they'll make you cringe, mind), and a great, fast paced but radio-friendly rocker in "Heaven Is" (imagine the Beach Boys with huge harmonies and equally bombastic guitars). The production is super-slick, but even so this is the album of the band's career.
Having said that… Hysteria didn't have SIX massive hits and sell 18 million copies for no reason, and Pyromania is a much rougher-sounding effort than the super-slickness of Hysteria and Adrenalize, but it still contains a huge element of melody (and sold nine million, platinum twice more than Kid "Ego" Rock, much to my satisfaction). Slang showed the band could do something completely different but if you give it a chance the quality of songwriting is such that any open-minded Leppard fan will find a real gem. Euphoria, the band's latest effort, showed them doing what they do best, but the funky Prince-gone-metal "All Night", and the sappy "It's Only Love" were just two songs that continued to show their evolution, and the whole effort sounds more fresh and vibrant than anything to come winging my way in an extremely long time. New album is predicted for late 2001/ early 2002, but with the band's reputation for perfection in the studio, don't get too excited yet. In the meantime, I'd recommend Euphoria and their greatest hits collection, Vault, as good places to start your Leppard obsession. And if you do go for Adrenalize, remember it got a mixed reception among Leppard fans. They're all mentally defective, clearly, but there ARE Lep fans who don't like Adrenalize.

Come on, what's bad about them? Debut album On Through the Night is a cult classic among fans of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal (NWOBHM, an explosion of young heavy metal bands in Britain at the start of the 80s, a movement of which Def Leppard were at the forefront along with Iron Maiden), but really it's a complete mess. Fans of either Leppard or NWOBHM only. Also, the band may have been born in Britain, but they're now completely Americanised. And "Kings of Oblivion" on Euphoria is the kind of thing that makes you think Leppard deserve to make a popular comeback about as much as Nazism does. Decades spent in the studio also mean most albums are almost entirely devoid of both raw edge and spontaneity.

Band rating: 97%

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