![]() “Romeo Delight,” “Everybody Wants Some!!” and the mad, triple-time dash, “Loss of Control,” are works of high-volume art. Specializing in decibels and cock-strutting bravado, they put forth the proposition that Might Is Always Right, and the proof on their third LP, Women and Children First, is pretty convincing. Van Halen toss melody - along with subtlety and good manners - straight out the barroom door. On through the Night is awfully impressive for a band making its vinyl debut. Watch Billy Joel Perform 'Pour Some Sugar On Me' With Def Leppard's Joe Elliottĭisplaying a wisdom beyond their years, Def Leppard take the timeworn basics of heavy metal, give them a punky Eighties overhaul and come up with, uh, heavy melody. And while Joe Elliott isn’t a lead singer on the sanctified level of Robert Plant, he wails wonderfully in a resonating tenor, fortified by backup harmonies and Tom Allom’s battering-ram production. Bassist Rick Savage and drummer Rick Allen apply the same youthful muscle to a breast-beating ballad (“Sorrow Is a Woman”) as they do to a Thin Lizzy-like raver (“Wasted”). The anthemlike “Rock Brigade” and “Hello America,” with its Queen-aphonic harmonies, are apt examples.Įven when they dare to wax poetic in such apocalyptic sagas as “When the Walls Came Tumbling Down” and the seven-minute, Rush-style “Overture,” Def Leppard rarely let their ambition outstrip their rock & roll sense. Ignoring heavy-metal’s unwritten law requiring long guitar solos in every other tune, guitarists Pete Willis and Steve Clark shoot from the hip, packing their licks into tight, three-minute pop arrangements. ![]() Yet On through the Night shows they not only respect their elders, they’ve taken cues from their New Wave peers, too. With an average age of eighteen, the five members of Def Leppard are barely old enough to remember the first Neanderthal rumblings of Black Sabbath and Deep Purple. It’s also bigger, louder and - hard as this may be to believe - better than ever, rising to punk-rock’s challenge by adding some new risks to the old riffs. But heavy metal, that belligerent bastard son of American blues and macho English rock-star attitudes, is back. Even more significantly, critical appraisals such as Rolling Stone's, which proclaimed On Through The Night to be "awfully impressive for a band making its vinyl debut," piqued the interest of AC/DC producer Mutt Lange – the man who would later helm High 'n' Dry, Pyromania and Hysteria, and help mold Def Leppard into the legendary act they are today.Fans insist that it never went away. 15 on the UK Top 40 and swiftly opened doors for Def Leppard, who supported its release with a series of high-profile US opening slots for Pat Travers and Ted Nugent, and a slot at UK's Reading Festival. Perhaps most decisively, the cinematic "Sorrow Is A Woman" drew up the blueprint for future smoldering rock ballads. Adrenalized, hook-stuffed anthems such as "Wasted," "Rock Brigade," "It Could Be You" and re-recorded highlight "Rocks Off" showed how deftly the band's bristling rock sound embraced the three-minute pop format, while "Hello America" – with its layered, Queen-esque vocal arrangement – and the complex, Rush-style epic "Overture" proved Joe Elliott and Co. Though lacking the poise and sophistication of their legend-enshrining later albums, the brash On Through The Night still has plenty to recommend it. It may not have the critical or commercial cachet of their landmark titles Pyromania and Hysteria, but Def Leppard's 1980 debut, On Through The Night, effectively captured the band's confident initial strides on a remarkable journey which has led to over 100 million record sales worldwide and their imminent induction into the hallowed Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame.
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