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REVIEW – How DEF LEPPARD is not in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is one of the biggest crimes. You can ask a million old school metal fans to name one record that still to this day they can listen to and it still sounds fresh and excites them, Pyromania has to be one of their picks. If Thriller waited a year to come out or came out a few years earlier, this would have been the first metal record to hit number one, instead we got Quiet Riot-Metal Health to thank for that honor. (Rock and Roll Hall of Fame again another selection for you clueless putz) Adrenalize is the biggest culprit in the fight of why fans went to Napster so fast. Adrenalize was the first crack in the foundation that DEF LEPPARD was a one trick pony that seems to be busted relying too much on their pop bubblegum formula that sounds flat. There is no way you can tell me “Heaven Is” and “Tonight” were not the laziest attempts at making some top 40 hits for them. Then we went from glam metal to the era in music of who can depress the other more and they give us this different sound in Slang. I will be the first to say I really loved the Slang album. At that time it is what the band needed. Now we fast forward some 22 to 23 years and we have the self titled new record by DEF LEPPARD.
This record I feel is a cross between the tricks in the past that worked for them with some diversity here and there to throw people off. DEF LEPPARD is in this odd spot at this point of their career, they know fans will not accept anything new from them but yet they are having trouble trying to recapture the sound of the era that made them a household name. Joe Elliott with this record has created DEF LEPPARD as this tribute band that seems to be struggling with its place in music. I will say right now, there is some decent songs on here that caught me off guard that I was into like Dangerous. It has some sick guitar riffs to it and it has the DEF LEPPARD spirit. Then you have this bouncy song called Man Enough which the chorus is to me the worst part of the song. If they did not have that cheesy chorus and attempt at catchy, it would have worked so much better. It is obvious they were inspired by the band Royal Blood. Sea of Love is another track that I dug. I know people will read this and assume I am some critic who judges everything so unfairly and I am not really a fan. I am coming into this like all the music I review as a fan, I put that critic shit to the side till I am done with the album. I played this record three times back and forth trying hard to find more that I really felt worked for me. The video era ended and today bands no longer have an image to sell music, they have to put the shit on the table for us to digest and see what we like. When Steve Clark died, to me so did the majority of what made this band work. I will admit, I was a fan of Retro Active as well as Slang. To me, after that record the band just become a shadow of themselves. This is the best they can come up with after what 8 or 9 years away? If you go see them live, how many of you will be stoked that you will not get a classic song in favor to something off this record? I am so letdown by this record, and I hope for the sake of everything Leppard that at least they get the Hall of Fame nod.
