Music Disc Reviews

Def Leppard was an ’80s anomaly. The band wasn’t exactly part of the decade-opening NWOBHM (a.k.a. New Wave Of British Heavy Metal) scene, nor was it entirely aligned with the androgynous, hair-sprayed looks and vibes of metal-adjacent contemporaries like Mötley Crüe and Poison. Instead, Def Leppard took inspiration from their own ’70s heroes, fusing glam-slam and pub-rock roots with power-pop harmonies and arena-rock guitar riffage. Stir it all together, and you get one of that decade’s biggest albums, January 1983’s Pyromania.

The production values native to Pyromania took the Leps to stratospheric levels that were only just percolating on their previous studio album, July 1981’s High ’n’ Dry — the band’s first with uber-producer Robert John “Mutt” Lange. Pyromania also carved the deeply layered — and I mean deeply layered — blueprint for how the Leps would approach the balance of their ensuing studio albums to this day. (See May 2022’s back-to-form Diamond Star Halos for further evidence.)

Forty-one years on, the mighty Leps have seen fit to properly fete Pyromania with a 40th anniversary (yes, yes, it should be the 41st, we know) super deluxe edition 4CD/1BD box set via Mercury/Universal Music Recordings (SRP: $96.99). CD1 holds a remaster of the original album. CD2 contains 22 unheard and/or unreleased demos that were “re-discovered” (their words) by frontman Joe Elliott while he was “combing through the vaults.”

CD3 houses six live tracks from their brief set at the third Rock Pop in Concert event at Westfalenhalle in Dortmund, Germany, on December 18, 1983. CD4 has 15 tracks recorded live at The Forum in Inglewood, California, in September 1983. Finally, the Blu-ray offers a Dolby Atmos mix of the core album as done by Giles Martin, in addition to DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1, 2023 PCM stereo, and 2023 instrumental stereo mixes of the same — though the latter mix is oddly referred to as, er, “stereons” on the box’s back cover. Also included on the BD are five icon-making performance-centered videos.

The Pyromania box’s sturdy outer shell is a smaller footprint than you might expect at 91/2 x 0 15/16 x 9 7/8 inches (w/h/d) — but it matches the size of two of the band’s previous box sets (The Early Years: 79-81 and London to Vegas, both released in 2020) for easier shelving purposes. A slide-out, tri-fold cardboard sleeve holds the five discs in half-pockets — two CDs apiece are centered above and below each other on both the inner-left and inner-center panels while the BD resides by itself, centered on the top-half of the inner-right one.

A 60-page hardbound book boasts a lengthy historical essay with new band member interviews, plus it’s bursting with rare and unseen photos galore by the band’s longtime favored photographer, Ross Halfin. I also dig seeing the full-page Battery Studios tape-box pic and random press clippings. The sheer volume of photos and background info mirrors how the Leps have consistently packed their reissue projects over the years.

The Atmos mix by Giles Martin is the Pyromania box set’s crown jewel — and rightly so. While Martin may primarily be known for his surround work for The Beatles catalog, he also helmed a cool Atmos mix for the 2017 30th anniversary 3CD/1BD edition of INXS’ October 1987 worldwide hit Kick, so he also knows how to bring out the best of ’80s music. Rather than overdevelop the bombast in “Photograph,” Martin uses the height channels and right quadrants to give extra credence to drummer Rick Allen’s cowbell and the band’s rich vocal harmonies while maintaining the integrity of Phil Collen’s searing guitar solo at eye-height across the soundstage (something Martin does consistently on every track).

Note how the all-channel impact of the layered harmonies on the choruses of “Foolin’” is actually a step down from the all-out assault of “Rock of Ages,” as Martin focuses on the differences of each song’s lyrical intent — wistful on “Foolin’,” elegiac on “Rock of Ages.” Plus, Martin has 360-degree fun with the clever, endlessly revving synthy outro of the final track, “Billy’s Got a Gun,” something that always kept those of us who owned the original vinyl on our toes.

As for the bonus material, CD2’s work-’em-out demos are fascinating, and I can’t get enough of the instrumental outtake “No You Can’t Do That.” (They can — and they did!) CD3 is a short, 27-minute live set, but you’ll dig the drive of “Let It Go.” CD4 is 70 minutes of prime live Lep, featuring their barn-burning, show-closing cover of CCR’s “Travellin’ [sic] Band.”

What do you want? You want to rock & roll — you betcha! — and Def Leppard’s Pyromania box set is one for the ages. Until we get the sure-to-come super-deluxe treatment of their blockbuster followup, August 1987’s even-more-megaplatinum and even-more-layered Hysteria, Pyromania serves as a fiery map-marker for where harmonious hard rock was heading in the 1980s. When you take Martin’s muscular Atmos mix into account, the 2024 super deluxe edition of Pyromania is as immersively incendiary as can be to ensure you continue to rock rock till you drop.