Monday, November 28, 2011

492 - Pyromania - Def Leppard - 1983



First, two points. One, I realize this is not metal. Two, this is the most recent Def Leppard album to make the countdown.

Leppard still had some traces of NWOBHM here. No matter what the band and its members proclaim, they were a Metal band in the early 1980's. Granted, they are right, and this was not a metal album, but the two previous ones were, and this is close.

Def Leppard are an MTV success story. Granted, this is a good rock record, but certainly not worthy of its ridiculous success. The only thing more mind numbing is the success of their completely bland saccharin sounding follow up, Hysteria.

Pyromania, despite is strong commercial singles, has some great tunes on it (Stagefright, Rock Rock 'til You Drop, etc.) Even the singles have that NWOBHM backbone (Rock of Ages, Comin' Under Fire). Finally, the ballads are tolerable, even good. The one thing this band always did well was cheese.

So while I am not one to lavish this band with praise, I will not castigate them for the musical direction they took (and really who could - as there are big bucks in pop music). Pyromania was a good rock record and really, in the right place at the right time for this band, and for metal in general. Also, the right place is number 492.

4 comments:

P. Hawkins said...

burn the building, burn, burn burn

Anonymous said...

This album is okay like you said for what it is, but I think Def Leppard hit their metal peak with High 'N' Dry. They seemed to have paid a high price for their fame and fortune, an arm and a death. Maybe they made some kind of crazy deal with the devil.

T-_Bone said...

I'm not sure about a deal with the devil. Really they were made for fame and fortune. Of course it helped that they recrited that bloke from Girl.

CRAIG said...

And that bloke at 50 something still performs in concert shirtless. That's metal.