Def Lepp

Of all the ‘80s bands that once ruled the hair metal roost, few soldiered through the following decades with as much tenacity as Def Leppard, who scored hits during the grunge era (“Let’s Get Rocked,” “Two Steps Behind”) and the late-‘90s teen pop revival (“Promises”) before quietly fading from the charts. The group then whipped itself into a touring juggernaut, spending nearly every summer on the road with AOR titans like Journey and REO Speedwagon. On Mirror Ball – the band’s first live release, unless you count the out of print Live: In the Clubs, In Your Face EP from 1993 – the guys are all pushing 50, yet the band doesn’t sound all that removed from its Reagan-era heyday…

There were a lot of heavy metal bands in the 1980s and there were a lot of pop bands too; there weren't many who combined the two styles as well as Def Leppard did. This is a statement that the simply titled The CD Collection, Vol. 1 proves over and over during the course of its playing time. Made up of the four albums the band released during the 1980s, a live show recorded in 1983 (which was issued as part of the deluxe edition of Pyromania), a disc of B-sides and rarities, and a mini-disc of the band's self-titled 1979 EP, the set is filled with razor-sharp riffs, hooky choruses, thudding backbeats, inferno-hot guitar soloing, keening vocal harmonies, and the inimitable yelp of singer Joe Elliott as it runs through their early career.

This is the second of four volumes of the complete recorded output of Def Leppard available as both a 10-LP, 180gm vinyl box and a limited edition 7-CD set featuring all the recordings from the band in the 1990’s with their original packaging. The albums were re-mastered by Ronan McHugh at Joe’s Garage and cut by Greg Moore.