Pyromania : Deluxe Edition

Def Leppardの代名詞とも言える傑作のデジタル・リマスター盤に1983年ロサンゼルスのフォーラムでの未発表ライヴ・トラック15曲を収録したボーナス・ディスクを加えた豪華2枚組デラックス・エディション。1983年にリリースされたサード・アルバム『Pyromania』は、Def Leppardを世界的なバンドにした記念すべき作品。アルバムから「Photograph」「Rock Of Ages」「Foolin'」と大ヒット・シングルが生まれ、アメリカだけで1,000万枚を超えるセールスを記録した。

Heavy metal behemoths Def Leppard's third album 'Pyromania' (originally released in 1983) is worthily given the 'Deluxe Edition' treatment here, having accrued legend status since its inception. As well as the original album in a newly re-mastered guise, fans will be pleased to note that the second disc is a complete concert from 1983. Live from London's Forum, it features much of 'Pyromania' begin performed, arguably, as it should be, in front of an audience. Songs like 'Rock Rock (Till You Drop)' and 'Photograph' prove to go down a storm.|

Def Leppard were one of the shining lights of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal that brought an exciting, raw energy and stripped-down sound to metal in the late 70s and early 80s, and their first two albums, 1980s On Through the Night and 1981s High N Dry, showcased a band who knew how to combine hooks, swagger, and guitar crunch with the best of them. By the time they went into the studio to record their third album, they had gained some success but were ready to aim for the upper rungs of charts. To that end, the band and producer Mutt Lange began the process of sanding off most of the metallic edges left in Def Leppards sound and replacing them with a gleaming, studio-concocted sheen that was all high-end shimmer, stacked vocal harmonies, processed drums, and guitars that whooshed and soared like jet planes. 1983s Pyromania was the groups blatant grab for success, and it worked beyond their wildest dreams, with a parade of singles nearing the top of the charts and the album becoming a huge seller that helped define the era and inspired so many other bands to combine metal and pop. Only the most die-hard metal fans would begrudge the band their success since they made such a catchy, fun, and exciting album. Songs like "Photograph," "Foolin," Rock! Rock! (Till You Drop)," and "Rock of Ages" are pop music at its best, tightly packed with hooks, spiced with guitar riffs, powered by tightly coiled energy, and topped by Joe Elliotts perfect yowl. "Too Late for Love" is another great ballad in the vein of their previous "Bringin on the Heartbreak," that shows the slightly more tender side of the group; on the flipside, "Die Hard the Hunter" and Billys Got a Gun," delve into more dramatic territory thats fantastic and dramatic, respectively. Its a rare case of a band selling off any of the cred they may have built up in their early years and totally buying into the pop music game, but instead of becoming yet another foolish casualty, they somehow beat the system instead. Pyromania is over-produced, over-polished, over-cooked, and brilliant from beginning to end. Because its such a daring tightrope act, almost every band that followed in their footsteps got it laughably wrong. Def Lep themselves were rarely able to reconstruct the formula correctly, which shows just how difficult it was to combine committed, energetic performances with meaningful, perfectly constructed songs, and to deliver them in a super slick metal-meets-rock-meets-pop fashion that somehow pleased so many people Goldilocks-style at the time, and continues to sound magical decades later. ~ Tim Sendra

While Def Leppard had obviously wanted to write big-sounding anthems on their previous records, Pyromania was where the bands vision coalesced and gelled into something more. More than ever before, the bands songs on Pyromania are driven by catchy, shiny melodic hooks instead of heavy guitar riffs, although the latter do pop up once in a while. But it wasnt just this newly intensified focus on melody and consistent songwriting (and heavy MTV exposure) that made Pyromania a massive success -- and the catalyst for the 80s pop-metal movement. Robert John "Mutt" Langes buffed-to-a-sheen production -- polished drum and guitar sounds, multi-tracked layers of vocal harmonies, a general sanding of any and all musical rough edges, and a perfectionistic attention to detail -- set the style for much of the melodic hard rock that followed. It wasnt a raw or spontaneous sound, but the performances were still energetic and committed. Leppards quest for huge, transcendent hard rock perfection on Pyromania was surprisingly successful; their reach never exceeded their grasp, which makes the album an enduring (and massively influential) classic. ~ Steve Huey