Pyromania by Def Leppard (Cassette, Jul-1987, Mercury)

When Def Leppard appeared in concert at Irvine's Verizon Wireless Amphitheater last September 30, they started off the show with "Rocket" and "Animal." These are the second and third cuts from their 1987 release "Hysteria." The band also played "Pour Some Sugar on me," "Armageddon it," and even some of the more deeper cuts such as "Excitable." They are aware of the huge popularity of "Hysteria," which is their most critically acclaimed and commercially successful offering. Known for their melodic heavy metal tunes and sweet backup and harmonizing vocals, "Hysteria" shows all these and more at their best. They even get political in "Dogs of War" which has sound bytes from President Reagan interwoven with the haunting guitar riffs at one point. I have the CD in my collection already and it has been worn out in places from all the times it has been played on my car stereo. My purchase of the cassette rounds out my cassette collection of Def Leppard releases and makes very good workout music (especially some of the more rousing tunes such as "Armageddon it" and "Love and Affection." I am one of those dinosaurs who still uses a Sony Walkman with cassette and for now, see no reason to upgrade.
Def Leppard fascinates me because they are so hard to classify. Their guitarists are as energetic as any other metal group yet their songs are overwhelmingly upbeat, usually about love and hope. The melodic nature of their songs and the harmonizing style cause them to be thought of as "pop" in some ways yet many of their songs are too edgy for pop. In the end, I'll go with my description of their style to a friend with pre-teenagers: "Family friendly heavy metal."