Def Leppard
Vault: Greatest Hits

THE REVIEW

With this review, I would like to pay tribute to one of the most important melodic hard rock bands of all time, a pioneer of the N.W.O.B.H.M. alongside Iron Maiden and Saxon, one of the few European hard rock groups to break into the new continent.

All this and much more are Def Leppard. Ah, yes, because what makes the "deaf leopard" special, beyond the commercial successes that in the eighties (and especially with the albums Pyromania and Hysteria) made the group one of the most famous both in Europe and the States (emblematic, in this regard, is the American affirmation of Pyromania, which climbed to the top of the charts simply unseating one of the best-selling records of all time, namely Thriller by M. Jackson), is the resilience and immense strength of spirit that distinguished it in the face of the adversities of fate that threatened to bring the band down on several occasions, and which, instead, strengthened the spirit of cohesion of a group, consisting firstly of men and only later musicians.

This too is what Def Leppard are, five friends who have always played together since the beginning (guitarist Phil Collen, although not present in the first two albums, was part of the Leppard staff from the origins) and who, in the face of great dramas (car accident to drummer Rick Allen resulting in the amputation of an arm, death due to alcohol consumption of guitarist Steve Clark) characterizing their events, always managed to find the strength to carry on. This explains the decision to build a custom drum set so that Allen could continue to play, and the common desire to continue the Def Leppard project even after Clark's passing, after months during which the other members had lost even the strength to take up their instruments again.

Musically, there is not much to say, the success of classics like "Animal", "Hysteria" (the video is heartbreaking), "Photograph", "Pour Some Sugar On Me" allowed Def Leppard to become one of the most famous and followed bands (in the eighties practically every concert was sold out) in the entire hard rock scene and beyond, classics that no old rocker can have never hummed at some point in their day. The records of the last decade, unfortunately, do not hold up to the previous ones. Hence the desire to propose this collection that encompasses the best tracks up to 1995, to try to reintroduce the band to those who have set them aside and to introduce them to those who do not know them.