Pyromania

Of all the albums I felt the need to defend, Def Leppard's Pyromania shouldn't be one of them. Yet the slaughter of poor reviews of this album need to be corrected. Pyromania is a monster. What it did in 1983 and paved the way for is probably invisible from most of the reviewers here who probably don't realize they were possibly conceived to this album. Did Def Leppard overstay their welcome? Yes. Is 1983's Pyromania Def Leppard's peak? No, that would come with Hysteria, the actual album that has the one-armed drummer. Rick Allen had both of his arms on this one. 4/5.

Photograph isn't a half bad pop song. The rest is almost a self-parody with all the stupid cliches. Plus, if you're mentioning the words "rock and roll" in half your songs you're just pandering too hard. And my god that guy's voice. I will say, Mutt Lange did a stellar job producing this trash. And the band doesn't have a terrible sense of melody. If they actually had something to say and a singer who didn't sound like a Spinal Tap reject, this might've been a 2 or even a 3. I just noticed that there are TWO Def Leppard albums on here. TWO. There's no Heart, Ween, MF DOOM, Glen Campbell, Les Paul, Deftones, Laurie Anderson, Weezer, Shawn Colvin, Of Montreal, Joe Jackson, King's X, Hank Williams, Neutral Milk Hotel, or Uncle Tupelo, but there are TWO goddamn Def Leppard albums on here? You know what? Bring it on, motherfuckers. Y'all are just making me stronger.

I always wanted to know what an album with one armed drummer sounded like. But not this badly. Got through 3 songs.

Making heavy metal accessible for the masses! Love this album almost as much as I did 40 years ago. High and Dry is their best album though!

This is a classic from my childhood. Growing up, by older sister had the vinyl LP. Everything about it, from the music, the cover art, and the videos on MTV, fascinated me. Joe Elliot was the king of cool in my book. I used to love the part of the "Rock of Ages" video when he had the broadsword and it turned into a guitar. Too friggin cool. It was a fantastic balance of heavy/hard rock and melodic pop. I still love it.

If you like Butt Rock, this turd is a gem.

I've never been able to think of Def Leppard as anything other than a joke, this album is a big reason why. Look at that cover, this band looks metal! Wait, what? It's just a bunch of pop songs? Okay. Well, congrats on your immense wealth and popularity!

+Photograph, Too Late for Love, Foolin', Rock of Ages, Comin' Under Fire, Billy's Got a Gun Deliberate, precise, measured, exact...these are not words we normally use to describe hard rock, but Def Leppard isn't like other schlock rockers; They use musical theory, chord progression, harmony, and song structure to produce a glisteningly crystal-clear product that is chock full of production value, addictive progressions, and perfectly-balanced mixing. There just isn't another act out there that can so pull off what Def Leppard does, album after album, and make it look so easy in the process.

This album is both amazing and a total baffler. It's basically a perfect little slice of pop-meets-rock with the big choruses, mutt lang production and technical skill to pull it all off. But the first song is legit terrible. I don't even know why it's on the album at all, let alone why they'd want it to be the first thing anyone hears. Oh, and let's be real: most of us would be surprised to learn that this was BEFORE the drummer got his arm cut off, because it still sounds like it was written with a one-armed man in mind. At least he didn't have to really relearn much to play it live. Maybe Joe Elliott is actually Nostradamus and predicted the accident along with 9/11 on the album cover LOL! haha, 9/11 jokes aside, this album is great. 5/5.

Warm fuzzy 80s vibe, sick guitar riffs, passionate vocals, excellent harmonies. Every track is solid. This shit is good.

Fantastic! Melodic and energetic hard rock. Super catchy, you can dance to it, it is fun from start to end. A model hard rock album. Very reminiscent of Highway to Hell album.

The album where Def Leppard began to tip the scales from cool rocker baddasses to pop-star overplayed media darlings. Some good stuff here. Some not so good. Probably a 3.5 and rounding up because their previous album, “High n Dry” got me reprimanded by a school board member for excessive noise at a HS baseball game.

Loved this when it first came out, haven’t listened to it for about 20 years and sadly it hasn’t aged well. It’s the genesis of commercial DL, you can hear their distinctive sound within the album. Still I would give it a 4 because there were tracks on it that were still very listenable

Listen, I know this is straight-up bubblegum pop hairmetal. None of these lyrics are going to challenge anyone and there's nothing surprising on the album. But damn if it isn't a whole lot of fun. It's also a rare example of an album where the b-side tracks hit so much better than the a-sides. I mean, "Foolin'," "Rock of Ages," and "Billie's Got A Gun" all on the same side? That's a lot of fun relegated to the flip. I sure can't justify a 5-star review here. It's just not that good. But it's too fun for a 3-star. So here we are. 4 stars for you, you silly brits.

Another from the panther with hearing difficulty! I can comfortably say I enjoyed Hysteria more, but this one is really solid too. Some classic bangers like "Photograph" and "Rock of Ages," plus a couple other songs I will keep in the playlist. They aren't the most sophisticated band, but they get the hits right. I can't imagine we'd have more than these two albums on here, but we shall see. Great listen though! Favorite tracks: Photograph, Rock of Ages, Too Late for Love, Foolin. Album art: God I hope this isn't one of the twin towers, like that ominous Jeru cover. But no, the art style is cool here, a sniper scope zoomed in on a burning/exploding building. It's one I've seen hundreds of times. Strong framing/font too. Very nice. 4/5

Big dumb fun

Pre-1001 I probably would have listed pop-metal as my least favourite genre, but now there are so many others competing for that spot. Kicking off with a song title like "Rock Rock til you Drop" assures a maximum score of a two in my books though I have to admit "Photograph" isn't my least favourite radio hit of the early 80s, so a one was averted.

its big cock rock and its cheesy and dumb. some of it is fun guitar rock, but most of it belongs dedass in the past.

Not quite an abomination but not good

Walked 3 miles one way to the mall to buy this album when I was 14. Probably 3.5 but 4 for nostalgia.

Unfortunately, this was not the morning for Def Leppard. I already had a headache and knew this would make it worse. I tried my best, I took the tablets, put the volume down to one and tried to listen to the melodies and guitar rather than listen to that horrible voice. But frankly, the end couldn’t come soon enough. And the headache hasn’t shifted.

I never listened to Def Leppard before because I didn't really think they'd be my thing. I was wrong. They're not just \"not my thing.\" This is easily one of the most shitty things I've ever heard. I'm straight up stunned at the moment. This is the raw chicken that got microwaved for 45 minutes of music (with Pop-Rock seasoning). Just when I thought I had passed the worst of it, I was hit with another insipid verse from that \"voice\" (I hate it), or another endlessly noodly and annoying guitar solo (hate it)... And the ballads. The ballads are WORSE. jfc Honestly, I could probably tolerate some of these songs if they got mixed into a playlist at low ratio. But if this doesn't deserve a 1, I don't know what does. Wow that sucked.

I hate this band so much. I hate that I still hear their corny ass songs here and there. I pretty much summed up all my dislike for this band on my review of the other piece of trash album. So I just want to say: Fuck this band. Fuck them in their stupid asses.

Perfection

Definitely an album to rock out to.

Incredible

Gotta love Def Leppard

Great rock album

Excellent album

10/10. Straight up classic. Ion even like rock but I adore this shit.

AWE YEAH! LIT

I was surprised for it to be this good! I thought it would be corny and although it feels a lot like ACDC it has a charm of it’s own

Amazing what a drummer can do with 2 arms

Turns out I recognized more tracks on this than I thought. Hard one for me to be objective about.

To be honest, this one was way better than I expected. Perhaps my expectations were low because two of the best known songs from the album (Photograph and Rock Of Ages) were by far the worst tracks in my opinion. But the less poppy parts of the album were a lot of fun and I ended up enjoying the album quite a bit!

This is one of the albums on this list that I know well already. I think every song is great and it is enjoyable from start to finish. "The extra instrumental track at the end of 'Billy's Bot A Gun' has been called either 'The March Of The Dreaded Zultrons' or 'The March Of The Wooden Zombies' by different band members. The sound is Rick Allen putting random numbers into a Linn drum machine, later added to by the band and Mutt" (http://www.deflepparduk.com/album3.html) Classics: Photograph, Rock Rock, Too Late For Love, Foolin', Rock of Ages,. 4.5/5

80s rock and roll marked a massive deviation from the 70s. The influence of disco and warm recordings gave way to a resurgence of blues and stadium feels. Def Leppard was not an exception here, borrowing the wailing vocals of Led Zeppelin and the commanding guitars of Jimmy Page, Def Leppard changed it up and defined the 80s sound of rock by using background vocals to sing the choruses, ushering what would most certainly be the theme of 1980s metal, and that is writing what essentially is an anthem. Songs that could be sung for a crowd, by the crowd. "Rock of Ages", "Photograph", both songs create that feel of not just a hit single, but a rallying cry of sorts, something that as fans of Def Leppard, brought people together. This was the strangely optimistic theme of the decade and the band did it well. Overall the album is heavy when it needs to be, and expressive of the decade it was recorded where a new cool was being formed, and for that it earns its place in 1001.

Very fun, even though there is not a lot of substance.

Maybe I was being unfair to Def Leppard. This album rocks

Many months ago I gave Def Leppard's Hysteria the full 5 stars. They were more ambitious in Hysteria, but every other strength I found in Hysteria can also be found here. They truly represent the anthemic pop sound that glam metal aimed to stand for in the 80s. The production is super clean (apparently the drums were sampled), and the delivery is perfect to rock and sing along to, especially on the vocals. I noticed there's a stronger heavy metal influence on tracks like "Stagefright", and does get a bit prog in tracks like "Die Hard the Hunter." There are several duds in this album. Just like Hysteria, the last few tracks aren't very good, except they're actually generic duds here ("Billy's Got a Gun" is decent with cool effects). Otherwise, it's a great record all throughout just like Hysteria but with weaker songs.

I don’t know it’s fun but kinda dumb 7/10

Th first thing to comment is that this album is prior to Rick Allen's accident, which, while it was a tragedy for Rick, definately contributed to Def Leppard creating a unique sound on later albums. As such this is pretty standard 'hair metal' of the early/mid eighties. Well produced, well performed and one of the best of it's type, but nothing really exceptional. Hysteria and Adrenalize are much more impressive works. Yes it (and they) will be criticised as being 'poppy' but music does not always have to be serious and cutting edge, sometimes it can be, and should be, just pure fun - which this is.

A classic rock album with some fantastic songs. Photograph, Rock of Ages, and Foolin' are my favs from this one. The rest aren't very memorable but they are still good to listen to. I think this makes two Def Leppard albums on this list too so glad to see them return.

Artist #411 on last.fm but never heard this record Some classic tunes here! Nothing wrong with a bit of Leppard!

Nice Classic Hard Rock

Good fun 80s rock. 3.5 stars.

Just tinny sounding and awful. Not just ‘80s-cheesy-bad, but timelessly awful in being stupid and posturing and playing into the worst rock cliches (including taking themselves way too seriously). The worst part is that they seemed to make the world safe for even shittier and lamer hair bands and so many more bad power ballads. “Photograph” is a great song. Otherwise, this is gets awfully close to Spinal Tap territory (“Stagefright” especially).

In the 80's, metal had split into two different paths. The first aimed to be heavier, faster, and more intense with chunky riffs and shredding solos. The second went pop with it's catchier riffs, sing-along choruses, and more polished production. While bands like Metallica and Slayer were innovating on the metal genre by developing thrash metal, you had bands like Mötley Crüe, Quiet Riot, and Def Leppard who were selling out. Pyromania certainly embodies the core characteristics of glam metal. It also has the benefit of being a huge commercial success: Pyromania would chart well, sell well, and it can be argued that it's because of Def Leppard gaining exposure on the hot new network MTV. Four whopping music videos would be made from this album, with Photograph being in heavy rotation on MTV. The production value showed off how cool the band was with their leather jackets and teased hair, all while a murder-mystery is interspliced with a very subtle allusion to Marilyn Monroe. It's no wonder why Def Leppard broke the mainstream with this album. Despite it's provocative album title and cover art, Pyromania is as shallow as they come. It's the same song 10 times with the same boring rhythm guitars riffs, same safe solos, same group vocal choruses. If you really like the first song, then you'll really like the rest of the album. I didn't.

Oh boy I thought Iron Maiden was a joke, this is even less funny. Everything about this, the the cover, album title and the arrangements all scream cliche'd overwrought commercial metal. It is truly execrable.

old favorite

🟦 92 🥇 Photograph 🥈 Rock Rock (Till You Drop) 🥉 Rock of Ages

Probably a 4⭐️ but it’s getting the full 5 because Def Leppard are awesome

Absolutely love Def Leppard. Brilliant album

Stand-outs: "Rock Rock Till You Drop," "Stagefright," "Photograph," "Comin' Under Fire"

I LOVE Pyromania!! I’ve listened to the full album before, it’s just amazing! It’s one of the best albums from the 80s, and one of my favorite albums ever recorded!! I especially love Too Late For Love, Photograph, and Foolin’!

This album is as catchy as I remember when listening to it on the juke box seeming every day of 8th grade lunch.

sonzeira, rockzao classico diferenciado

hell yeah rock on

The whole album is the bright side of hair metal def worth a listen

God this is so dramatic but great. Favorites were photograph and Billy’s got a gun. Least favorite was rock of ages. 😘

I LOVE THIS ALBUM, DEF LEOPARD IS ALWAYS AMAZING

Absolute ripper. Will go back time and time again.

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOO Honestly this album just helped guide rock music into a fantastic direction, also it slaps.

Pretty cool.

this is awesome it's like acdc but better would definitely listen again

So many really great tracks on this album!

5 one-armed stars!

I think everybody has that one genre where they instantly drop any kind of critical lens and just fucking have fun with it. That's hard rock for me, and this album certainly delivers on the fun elements. The guitar work is phenomenal, and the vocals work kind of like a harder version of AC/DC. This will definitely be in the rotation going forward. Favorite track: Rock of Ages

Their best album, but that's just me. I like my lead guitarists to be alcoholics and my drummers to have two arms. Three monster hits, but almost any song here could have been released as a single and would have exploded on radio at the time. Maybe that's why I prefer this over Hysteria. The hits - and album tracks - on this album hold up much better.

Amazing album. First Def Leppard album I owned. All the songs are bangers. Especially liked hearing some of the great songs that are rarely played on the radio today.

I absolutely love this album. Maybe Stagefright is a little weak, but otherwise this album is an amazing hard rock masterpiece with pop sensabilities. I enjoy the darker broody pieces most (Billy's Got a Gun, Too Late for Love), but it is such an enjoyable full listen.

Wait a minute: he's not saying "all night, French Fries"? Difficult to believe this was a third album (see?) and not a debut. Even more difficult to believe that Joe Elliot would be a heavy metal guy. You really don't see that many metal guys with those golden curly locks and dashing good looks... My one criticism is that they should have started with Rock of Ages. But maybe that's like exposing the killer at the beginning of the murder mystery?

Fucking gold

Another great Def Leppard album, although I think Hysteria slightly beats this one. An excellent glam metal sugar rush though! Favourite: Foolin'

I didn’t need to listen to this one, as I listened to everyday when I was in 8th grade

Surprisingly good

topen

Great

A great example of 1980's rock albums. I would crank up the radio every time a song from this album came on. It's a must have for your collection

Another favorite of my dad’s that brought me straight back to childhood. Super fun album, no skips!

Fun classics.

This album rocks from start to finish

Sounds like stereotypical 80s rock LOL but I like it! This album gave me a lot of nostalgia because I used to listen to some of the songs a ton growing up (“Photograph” is one of my mom’s favorite songs). I especially liked the vocals, including the background vocals, which I thought were really well arranged.

Love 80's rock/hair metal, 5/5

Rock on my dudes. This is surprisingly awesome.

Favourite songs: Photograph, Rock of Ages, Rock! Rock! (Till You Drop), Foolin', Too Late For Love, Comin' Under Fire, Action! Not Words, Billy's Got A Gun Least favourite songs: Die Hard the Hunter 5/5

Not as big as Hysteria, but Photograph itself is worth the whole album

Still great.

1001 listens to an album you must hear before you grow up. This was one of the first cassettes I ever bought and helped me realize how uncool I was…until I of course went to Chess King and bought my own sleeveless DL Union Jack t-shirt, checkered bandana and parachute pants to complete the rock n roll package. After that my path to coolness was just fine. Upon relistening I didn’t realize how much synth was actually used on the album, and along with the signature shotgun snare sound I was immediately transported back in time. Yes Mutt Lange’s meticulous style of recording seems to have stripped away some of the grit and edge of the previous two albums, but it’s hard to argue with any track. Just an amazing influential rock album complete with banger after banger played by tight musicians. And to think that drummer Rick Allen was only 19 when they recorded this. Just plain sick. Rock for the Ages? You betcha.

5 full stars without question for this one. I listened today, but didn’t even have to because this is so engrained in my memory and still called up periodically in my rotation. Released just about 2 weeks before my 14th birthday, I ran to the Peaches record store with high anticipation to get my hands on this ASAP. This one really broke DL into the mainstream and launched them to stardom. A production masterpiece by the band and Mutt Lange, every track is a standout. My favs would have to be Foolin, Too late for love, and of course Photograph. I was already well familiar with the band from their 2 prior albums, most notably their debut released in ‘80 “On through the night”. It ranks just as high in my book, being a little heavier sound and style with their original guitar player Pete Willis. DL’s first 3 releases really bridge the heavier rock from the late 70’s to that classic 80’s metal sound. Killer album cover too.

DUDES ROCK

The album that started it all for me! Having grown up in East Germany, I only discovered this album in late 1990/early 1991 - but when I listened to it, I immediately fell in love with the music and the band. It's still one of my absolute favourite albums overall - there's not a single weak song on there, and even after the 100th spin I still discover new details.

5/5 - it’s a classic and it bangs

I luv rock mane

Photograph Stagefright Rock of ages

In retrospect, this is a more important album to me than would be expected, but it was really critical in expanding my musical palette at the time. At heart, I’m an R&B kid, raised on it partly because it was pretty much all that my parents listened to, so I basically grew up on it. We tend to forget about it, but as late as the 80s, it was still very common to be judged by the kind of music you listened to, with racial biases still entrenched. MTV was truly revolutionary, but in ‘83 they were famously called out by David Bowie for largely not playing any black artists on the channel, with the official response that such artists “didn’t fit their demographics.” I do distinctly remember this period despite only being 15, and while I hated MTV’s position on this issue, I was watching all their content and Hair metal 80s bands definitely opened up my mind to so much (rock) music. Biggest regret? Not going to rock concerts with my white high school friends at the time. And Def Leppard would’ve been a highlight: they stood out amongst the other hair/metal bands of the day. More melodic songs, and easy to sing along, stadium ready choruses. Might be a nostalgia play for me, but I think we don’t get to Destiny’s Child announcing their unironic love for Nirvana and other grunge acts in the 90s without what began with “mini social musical revolutions” started by many 80s acts like Def Leppard that helped get us to the “genre-less” stage of music we appear to thankfully be enjoying today.

Great record.

Happy to have this on the list. That shimmery Def Leppard sound I love! They are one of the pinnacles of 80s rock so two albums on this list are twice the party. Terrific!

Way to take me back to the summer of '83. Lots of nostalgia in this one.

I was not a metalhead in the 80s, but we all loved Def Leppard. It was gateway metal, I guess. This gets a slight bump for nostalgia but it's also a good rockin' time.