Tag: Gods of War

Def Leppard – ‘Drastic Symphonies’ (2023) – Picture Disc (The Def Leppard Collection Series)

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I know, I know…I reviewed this album last week. But this is The Collection Series and since a Picture Disc is very different from the normal vinyl and other items, I figured it deserved its own post. So bare with me…

In 2023, Def Leppard did something they hadn’t done in years. Give us a new album a year after the last studio album. In 2022, we were given ‘Diamond Star Halos’ and in 2023, ‘Drastic Symphonies’. Now, ‘Drastic Symphonies’ isn’t technically a studio album. And it isn’t technically a greatest hits compilation. Instead, what we are given is a remix album. Yes, Def Leppard chased the trend (although rather late) and gave us a Symphonic album. They remixed or reworked their songs and added classical music orchestration to it. The album was released on May 19, 2023, one week shy of the one year anniversary of the prior album. In my opinion, they should’ve taken much more time with it and got it right. Why? Let me explain.

A proper Symphony album is done live as that is where you really notice the difference. This is not a proper Symphony album. Instead, Def Leppard did one of two things with the songs. They either completely re-worked the song with the symphony dramatically added in a well thought out manner (sometimes it works, sometimes not). Or…they took a song and put in some symphony in places on the original track. The second way is pure and utter laziness and never works. Wiki says they completely redid all the songs with the exception of the vocals…but listening to it…I disagree. Some of these songs sound exactly like the original with symphony added and all I can say to that is “What is the freaking point!!”

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Def Leppard – ‘Drastic Symphonies’ (2023) – Album Review (The Def Leppard Collection Series)

Published on by 2loud2oldmusic10 Comments

In 2023, Def Leppard did something they hadn’t done in years. Give us a new album a year after the last studio album. In 2022, we were given ‘Diamond Star Halos’ and in 2023, ‘Drastic Symphonies’. Now, ‘Drastic Symphonies’ isn’t technically a studio album. And it isn’t technically a greatest hits compilation. Instead, what we are given is a remix album. Yes, Def Leppard chased the trend (although rather late) and gave us a Symphonic album. They remixed or reworked their songs and added classical music orchestration to it. The album was released on May 19, 2023, one week shy of the one year anniversary of the prior album. In my opinion, they should’ve taken much more time with it and got it right. Why? Let me explain.

A proper Symphony album is done live as that is where you really notice the difference. This is not a proper Symphony album. Instead, Def Leppard did one of two things with the songs. They either completely re-worked the song with the symphony dramatically added in a well thought out manner (sometimes it works, sometimes not). Or…they took a song and put in some symphony in places on the original track. The second way is pure and utter laziness and never works. Wiki says they completely redid all the songs with the exception of the vocals…but listening to it…I disagree. Some of these songs sound exactly like the original with symphony added and all I can say to that is “What is the freaking point!!”

Not all the songs were that way though. So it is worth going through them regardless what I think about the songs and the album overall. First, the orchestration on the album was done by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra with the arrangements done by Eric Gorfain and they do a fantastic job overall. No fault of theirs for what is wrong with the album. They recorded their parts at Abbey Road Studios in London, so that is pretty cool. On to the music.

“Turn to Dust”, from ‘Slang’, opens the album and all I can say is…”This is how the album should have been done with EVERY song!”. They completely re-worked this song and what was a really cool song on ‘Slang’ is actually taken up a notch with this one. The orchestration mixed with the Eastern style music is a match made in heaven. By far, the best song on the album as it is purposeful and mindful on how orchestration can enhance and even improve a song. And if that wasn’t good enough, “Paper Sun” is done exactly the same way…well thought out and executed. The two best songs on the album for sure!!

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Def Leppard – ‘Hysteria: Live’ (2020) – Album Review (The Def Leppard Collection Series)

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In 2020, Def Leppard released a really cool box set called London to Vegas. It had 2 shows, one from the 02 in London where they played the entire Hysteria album live and the other called ‘Hits Vegas: Live at Planet Hollywood’ where Def Leppard did another residency. The set had CDs for the shows as well as Blu Ray (or DVD) so you could watch it too. But that wasn’t all. They also released the albums individually and I bought each one as well, but this time on Vinyl.

Up this week is the band’s appearance at London’s O2 Arena back in 2018 where they played the entire ‘Hysteria’ album from beginning to end in order.  Yes, they have done this before with the ‘Viva! Hysteria’ release from the Vegas Residency, but they had never done the album in full in their home country before so they wanted to document that show as well. In 2020, they released the 2 LP set on vinyl with a beautiful gatefold album jacket. The vinyl itself is a really cool clear translucent color. Is clear a color? Anyway, the packaging was done very well and the whole package looks great.

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Def Leppard – ‘Classic Albums: Hysteria’ (2002) – DVD Review (The Def Leppard Collection Series)

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There was a TV show that talked about all the Classic Albums and Def Leppard were given one of those treatments. It was released on UK TV on May 27, 2002 and didn’t hit the States until August 27th, 2002. It had interviews from pretty much everyone involved. New interviews for the current band members and older ones for Mutt and Steve Clark. The band’s managers were interviewed as well as Ross Halfin, Jeff Rich and Rolling Stone’s David Fricke.

It kicks off with the band talking about moving to Dublin and the first song they started working on which was ‘Animal’. It took them 3 years to complete and get it right. It became the first single in the U.K. and finally gave the band their first hit in their home country.

They were in Dublin with Mutt Lange writing songs, but Mutt couldn’t commit to it as he was busy with another project. So, on to another producer. Jim Steinman was the first producer and Joe said Jim was a songwriter not necessarily a producer. The band did not agree with him ever. Jim wanted to capture the moment while the band was so used to Mutt and they wanted it to be perfect. They ended up paying Jim off for him to leave and they paid him a lot of money.

They then went to Nigel Green who was the engineer for Mutt, but he wasn’t Mutt. But around that time, Rick Allen had his tragic car crash where he lost his arm. They didn’t go in to detail of that until later in the show. This about the time Mutt finally came back in the fold and decided to produce the album. The work could seriously begin.

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The Collection: Ep. 26 – Hysterical about Def Leppard’s ‘Hysteria’

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Welcome to a surprise episode of The Collection. Being today is August 3rd, I thought what a great time to talk the Def Leppard album ‘Hysteria’. Why? Because ‘Hysteria’ was released on August 3rd way back in 1987. The band’s biggest album to date and one of the biggest albums of all time. If you are fan of the album, stick around and check out all that I have related to Hsyteria!

So go check it out as it is live now on August 3, 2024 at Noon…because why not!! Thanks for stopping by and please click “Like” and hit “Subscribe” as it helps out the site when you do.

Def Leppard – ‘Live: In The Round, In Your Face’ (1989) – DVD Review (The Def Leppard Collection Series)

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Def Leppard had the biggest selling album of their career. A tour that lasted for 227 dates throughout the world and to commemorate that achievement, they released the final piece to the “Hysteria” puzzle with ‘In the Round, In Your Face’ (according to the back cover of the CD Video I have (or Laserdisc). I had picked this up when I purchased a Hysteria Tour Book from a guy in Hawaii. For some reason, he included this and was charging the same price as everybody else that was only selling a Tour Book. So, I had to jump on that. And what a cool piece it is even though I have no way of playing it. But I also had the VHS at one time, now I have the DVD collection that holds both ‘Historia’ and ‘In the Round, In Your Face’ all on one disc.

The video contains a full Def Leppard live show at the McNichols Sports Arena in Denver, Colorado and additional footage from shows at The Omni in Atlanta, Georgia, compiled from footage shot during the band’s 1987/1988 US Hysteria World Tour. Considering I was at at least one of those Atlanta shows, I could be in there somewhere (I never found myself) but it is cool to have this in the collection. I think most of this is from the Denver so the chances are slim you would find me at all in the Atlanta pieces. Apparently, the songs “Don’t Shoot Shotgun”, “Let It Go”, “Tear It Down” and “Travelin’ Band” were performed and recorded but did not make the VHS or DVD.  I guess they were only budgeted for a certain amount of time on the release.

The video opens with the Lunar Mix of “Rocket” playing and some behind the scenes, pre-concert footage. We then get the Dirty Harry segment and Joe shouts out “I Said Welcome to My Show” and the guitars go nuts with riffs for “Stagefright”, one of the band’s best songs to open the show. But the curtain doesn’t drop. I remember when I saw the first of 3 shows on this tour, I thought something was wrong and the curtain didn’t fall for some reason. I then figured out they wait until after the first verse before dropping the curtain and then pandemonium set in as the crowd goes nuts and the band runs around all around the stage set up in the round so there are four front rows. They are in your face…wait, that is why they called the video that…I get it now!! Kidding, I knew that already.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=JK9ACEL5V8M%3Fsi%3DMSnemwd3sfJj2R-M

The quickly race through the song and go in to “Rock! Rock! (Till You Drop)” from ‘Pyromania’. Now, let me get right on this topic before we go further. The setlist is made up basically songs from ‘Pyromania’ (7) and ‘Hysteria’ (6) with only one from the ‘High ‘N Dry’ and that is it. Nothing from the first album. I mean we are only 4 albums in so why nothing from ‘On Through the Night’…baffling. Soapbox done. After some boob flashes, a killer solo, they go in “Women”, the first from ‘Hysteria’ and the first single here in the States. Phil goes in to the opening riff after some clever remarks from Joe. It is strange seeing Phil with his shirt on and hair. Speaking of hair, Joe’s mullet might the best mullet ever. While watching, you realize these guys must be exhausted by the end because with four front rows, they are constantly moving around, except for Rick Allen who sits center stage (that revolves) and bangs those drums.

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Def Leppard – ‘Live in Mountain View: August 17, 1988’ – Bootleg DVD (The Def Leppard Collection Series)

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With Bootlegs, you never know what you are going to get and that is especially true with concert DVDs. In my search for anything Def Leppard, I came across this live DVD of Def Leppard from their ‘Hysteria Tour’. The show was recorded on August 17, 1988 at the Shoreline Amphitheater just outside of Mountain View, California. The show was recorded using either a still shot of the video screen or the actual footage used for the venue video screens themselves. And the video quality is supposed to be great, along with the sound.

The show itself is the typical ‘Hysteria Tour’ show you would expect from the guys. By this time they were already basically ignoring anything from ‘On Through the Night’ and ‘High & Dry’ except for one song. The set list consisted of only one track from ‘High & Dry’, it included 7 from ‘Pyromania’ and 6 from ‘Hysteria’. No covers, nothing. 14 tracks and a little over an hour and a half long in length.

Earlier, I said the picture quality was supposed to be great, but that was not the case for this copy I have on DVD. I am sure this recorded off a copy of a VHS tape that was recorded of a copy of another VHS tape and another VHS tape and so on and so on. The quality at times is unwatchable especially when the stage is dark. If the stage is all lit up, the picture looks decent considering this is VHS technology on a DVD. However, the sound is spot on through out. Clear and you can hear everybody. This would’ve been better as a CD only concert bootleg in my opinion.

When you compare this set list to their famous live release, ‘In the Round, In Your Face’, it is an identical set list with one exception. In the encore you get an extra song with the band doing “Love Bites”. Otherwise, everything is pretty identical. The other show was recorded 5 months earlier in February 1988. 

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Def Leppard – ‘Hysteria’ (1987) – Album Review (The Def Leppard Collection Series)

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On August 3rd, 1987, Def Leppard released their fourth studio album, ‘Hysteria’.  Little did they know this ground breaking album would go on to sell over 25 million records, produce 7 hit singles and go to #1 on the Billboard Charts.  The members didn’t change as it was stilll Joe Elliott, Rick Savage, Rick Allen, Steve Clark and Phil Collen who got his first writing credits on this one. Whether you like this album or not, there is no denying the impact it had on the world of music. In fact, I have so many copies of this album. I have it on CD, cassette and vinyl and in fact, I have three copies on vinyl. The original album, the picture disc and the one that came in the box set The Collection, Vol. 1. I would say I’m set.

The album was a labor of love for the band as it took several years to record and they struggled so much during this time. There were so many setbacks during the recording of the album.  First, Robert John “Mutt” Lange turned down the producing job for the record after he had recorded “High & Dry” (my personal favorite) and “Pyromania” although he did help in the initial song writing for the record.  The band went through several producers during the recording including working with Jim Steinman of ‘Bat Out of Hell’ fame.  Their relationship did not go smoothly and he was later fired (they paid him a lot of money to get out of the contract so it must have gone really badly). Later in the process, “Mutt” did come back and produce the final product and then history was made.

The second big obstacle was Rick Allen’s car accident that severed his arm.  Yes, the drummer of the band lost an arm.  With all respect to the band, they did not abandon Rick.  They stood by him and supported him until he was capable of playing the drums with one arm using an electronic drum set and a set of foot pedals to compensate for the lost arm.  It definitely was a trying time.  I won’t go into much more as you can watch the documentary or read the book to learn more otherwise we could go on forever and ever talking about the making of this album as it had been 4 years since their prior release ‘Pyromania’. Instead, we can jump right in to the album as I feel we are here for the music anyway.

The first track on the album is the song “Women”. The song was the first single for the album in the U.S., but “Animal” was the first everywhere else. The reason for that is that Leppard wanted to make sure their core audience, the males, would understand what they were going for with the sound of this new album. They knew women might not like this one, however, the song isn’t degrading women at all. It is actually inspired by the important women in Joe Elliott’s life and is an anthem that actually pays tribute and celebrates women both their beauty and their strength all with a biblical background to it.

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My Sunday Song – “Gods of War” by Def Leppard

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For My Sunday Song #156, we are going to talk about one of Def Leppard’s few politically charged songs and one of the few songs from Hysteria that was not a single.  The song is “Gods of War”.  It is an epic song at over 6 minutes and I loved it when they used to play this one live long, long ago.  They still do play it when they do the whole Hysteria album in concert of course.

This was the 80’s and there were all these little military skirmishes going on around the world and it was the end of the Cold War.  Ronald Reagan was President of the United States and Margaret Thatcher was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.  Intermixed in the song were lines from the world leaders threatening the terrorists and even gun fire and battle sounds.  One of my favorite lines was towards the end when President Reagan said, “He counted on America to be passive, He counted wrong” and then there was gun fire and explosions.  For a teenage boy, that was really badass!  Plus, I can do a really great Reagan impression so I would say those lines in his voice every time I would sing it.

Joe came up with the song from watching the news and what was going on in the world. It was Def Leppard’s version of protest song which I am sure was overshadowed by the songs that the band was releasing such as “Pour Some Sugar On Me”.  People didn’t look at Leppard as a socially conscience band, but they could be and were.

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