Def Leppard: Pyromania (2LP, 40th anniversary, expanded edition) [MERCURY]

Why you'll love it

This 40th anniversary 2LP set pairs the remastered album with rough mixes of all ten songs and the out-take "No You Can't Do That." Pyromania reached No. 2 on the Billboard 200 and is certified diamond in the US for more than ten million copies sold.

This edition

• 2LP set
• 40th anniversary edition
• Remastered
• 180g vinyl
• Gatefold jacket
• Rough mixes and an out-take
• Stereo mix

About the album

The title came from the studio, where the band got so fed up hunting for the right guitar sound that they threatened to set fire to every Marshall amp in the room. Producer Robert John Lange, known to everyone as Mutt, had a better idea anyway. They built songs from riffs and fragments in the studio, laid down bass and guitars to a drum machine click, and added the drums last.

Phil Collen joined partway through, adding solos over rhythm parts that founding guitarist Pete Willis had already cut, and Joe Elliott's choruses got bigger by the week. "Photograph" and "Rock of Ages" both topped the Billboard rock chart, "Foolin'" and "Too Late for Love" made the top ten there, and "Rock! Rock! (Till You Drop)," "Stagefright" and "Die Hard the Hunter" kept the old metal crunch.

Closer to home, "Rock of Ages" climbed to No. 2 at CKOC in Hamilton and the album topped Q107 in Toronto. The rough mixes on the second disc show how much polishing Lange did. No Marshall amps were harmed in the making of this record, though we gather a few were spoken to quite sharply.

Also at Kops: more Def Leppard on vinyl · browse Metal

Tracklist

Listen

On Mercury (cat# 5839725), a reissue of the 1983 album.