Metal Reviews

Yep I don't see it on your list.

It's there, hasn't been edited. 80/100.

I really like Pyromania, H&D and Hysteria, in this order... When I istened to Adrenalize, I thought "Sounds like Bryan Adams,even worst" I I left the interest in Def Leppard.

I see you've not heard much of Bryan Adams then. By the way, Def Leppard kick the dingleberries off Bryan Adams.

Well, about Bryan Adams, the typical: Cuts like a knife (good), Reckless (a great rocking album), Into the fire (dissapoints me) and finally, Waking up, that, for me, sucks. I left the interest in Bryan Adams with that album.
And a few later, I listened Adrenalize, and it sounded to me like Waking up. I forgot about newer releases of Def Leppard (well, always reading the reviews, and listened to some samples, buy really I didn't found them as interesting as they were). And they were great.
I still listen to High'n'dry and Pyromania sometimes.

The lack of a twin guitar attack really hurt Adrenalize. It sounds too hollow for Leppard.

I'm going to have to go with Hysteria. When I was really young, Hysteria was the first rock cassette tape that my parents purchased for me. The CD was in my stereo for the whole summer. Quite possibly the best high energy party rock album ever. Great album for driving to the beach on a hot summer day. I mean the album had 6 singles. 6 Singles!

More than 6! The whole A side of the tape were hit singles, then from side B there was "Hysteria" and "Love And Affection" was a hit single in Europe and other countries outside the US, where it wasn't released as a single. Hysteria had 8 hit singles. 8 hit singles out of 12 songs! That fucking amazing! Not only that, the remaining 4 songs could have been great singles, too. "Gods Of War" would be a stretch, but it's a killer tune.

BTW, how is Retro Active? Never heard that one; same for Euphoria. Are they worthy purchases?

Retro Active is good. It's all of the B-Sides from various albums that SHOULD have been on the albums, but were not girly enough to make the cut. It takes a few songs to get going, but once it does you'll be hooked. Ride Into the Sun could have been huge had it been on an actual album.

Euphoria does have a few good tracks, but not enough to make it an essential purchase. If you find it cheap somewhere go ahead, but I can't recommend paying full price for it.

Isn't Ride Into the Sun a very early song, recorded before On Through the Night?

Yes, and its pure NWOBHM as well.

Was "Women" a single? If not, then it probably had the best chance of the 4 that didn't make it.

I think it starts very strong with "Desert Song" and "Fractured Love," one of my all-time favorite DL songs. Three versions of "Miss You In A Heartbeat" was a little much, though. Hahaha. "Ring Of Fire" is great, I really dig on that song. It's definitely a good collections album.


I think this is a killer album. There's a few pop rockers that are in the style of Adrenalize, a few anthemic rockers like those on Hysteria, one experimental song that could be likened to the Slang stuff, and a bunch that were very much like Pyromania and earlier tracks with heavy riffs, long solos, big choruses, etc. This is definitely a killer album! They were going in the right direction with this one, not sure what the fuck happened with X.


Yes, it first appeared on their debut 7" EP in 1978. The version on Retroactive has been re-recorded and is a little different.


Yes. It was actually the first single off the album and it didn't do too well. It wasn't until they released "Pour Some Sugar On Me" as a single that the album exploded, then, of course, "Women" became a big hit. "Pour Some Sugar On Me" was also the last song written for the album, the album was actually finished in their eyes and like on the last day of recording they just jammed that one out real quick. It was one of those moments, I guess. A lot of bands have this happen, you spend months writing and recording and right at the end you just bang one song out real fast that becomes THE song. If "Pour Some Sugar On Me" was never included on the album who knows what would have happened.

So, Def Leppard just released their first covers album called Yeah!. To be honest, I was skeptical. It turns out, though, the album is fucking great! I only knew about two of the covers, the rest were songs I'd never heard, some by bands I'd never heard!

Anyway, record companies are doing these "exclusive" deals with stores like Best Buy now, giving them a bonus track that'll only be on that stores version, the new Lep album did this, but with exclusive deals with FOUR FUCKING PLACES!! Best Buy and Target each got an exclusive cover and a live track, Walmart got an EP with 5 exclusive covers and three interview segments and it the iTunes version got one exclusive cover. Kind of crazy, but the Target version is only $7.99 and Best Buy price matched that, and the EP is only $4.88, so to get all the songs except the iTunes track is only about $20. Of course, that deal only works this week.

The tracklisting for each is as follows (not including the two live tracks):

Regular Album:

01. 20th Century Boy (Originally by T. Rex)
02. Rock On (Originally by David Essex)
03. Hangin' On The Telephone (Originally by The Nerves...popularized by Blondie)
04. Waterloo Sunset (Originally by The Kinks)
05. Hell Raiser (Originally by Sweet)
06. 10538 Overture (Originally by Electric Light Orchestra)
07. Street Life (Originally by Roxy Music)
08. Drive-In Saturday (Originally by David Bowie)
09. Little Bit Of Love (Originally by Free)
10. The Golden Age Of Rock 'N' Roll (Originally by Mott The Hoople)
11. No Matter What (Originally by Badfinger)
12. He's Gonna Step On You Again (Originally by John Kongos)
13. Don't Believe A Word (Originally by Thin Lizzy)
14. Stay With Me (Originally by Rod Stewart, Vocals by Phil Collen)

Best Buy Exclusive Tracks:

15. No Matter What (Live)
16. Winter Song (Originally by Lindisfarne)

Target Exclusive Tracks:

15. Action (Live)
16. When I'm Dead And Gone (Originally by McGuinness Flint)

iTunes Exclusive Track:

15. How Does It Feel (Originally by Slade)

Walmart Exclusive EP:

01. American Girl (Originally by Tom Petty)
02. Backstage Interview #1
03. Search & Destroy (Originally by Iggy & The Stooges, Vocals by Phil Collen)
04. Backstage Interview #2
05. Space Oddity (Originally by Bowie, of course)
06. Backstage Interview #3
07. Dear Friends (Originally by Queen, Vocals by Rick Savage)
08. Heartbeat (Originally by Jobriath)

I like how they put the obscure songs on the album and left the more known songs like "Space Oddity" and "American Girl" for the bonus stuff. I'm really diggin' this album. "10538 Overture" sounds identical to "Overture" in the beginning! They must have borrowed from that song! Pretty cool, though.

Anyway, it's a much more rockin' album than X. It's got a more raw sound for Def Leppard, and all of the tracks are excellent, if not good. You can check out some live tracks from Jay Leno the other night:

ROCK ON (Live)
20th CENTURY BOY

their cover of The Kinks' Waterloo Sunset is awesome

I'll probably buy this album... but it pisses me off that so many formats give so many different bonus tracks... should I blame the band, the record company, both ? :roll:

Blame the record companies. Many of them have these exclusive deals with stores in the US. Some with exclusive iTunes tracks that you can't get unless you install all those iTunes programs. Fuck that. I'm glad the band gave exclusive cover songs and not just a few live tracks or songs we've heard before. It sucks for overseas fans, but we've been getting fucked for years, so I don't feel bad. Plus, for like $23 you can get all the tracks but the iTunes track, that's not bad.

Here's some cool videos: BILLY'S GOT A GUN | ROCK OF AGES (Live 1983)

Steve was fucking badass!!

That's quite annoying. I'll get it if I ever find it used, so who knows which one I'll get! :roll: I'm not too big on covers albums though,.

What is "slang" sound like? I gave up after Hysteria but I honestly like their 1st 4 albums a lot.

Stay far, far away from Slang. It's pop music. Plain and simple. The guitarwork is simplistic nonsense, and every song has a cute little Hillary Duff type sing along chorus. It's not even anywhere near the spectrum of Rock. Some people on here will lie to you and say it's good, but trust me on this one. You'll just hate yourself after hearing it.