I guess in some ways I’ve been fortunate in that I was involved in the great Def Leppard love-fest that occurred with the release of this album back in 1987, and was one of the people that pushed my non-metal friends into enjoying it too – and I am also the older, more cynical listener of the album today, having experienced what has followed this album in the past twenty years. Time and insight can certainly provide different perspectives.
From the perspective of the 17/18 year old back when this was released, I thought it was just brilliant. It wasn’t as heavy as the other bands I was infatuated with at the time, and it was certainly different from their earlier releases, but hey, they’d had a few dramas in recording the album, and their drummer had lost an arm, so give ‘em a break! Still, even then it was the heav(ier) tracks that grabbed my attention, and the softer ones I tolerated because I loved the album so much.
That is the retrospective.
Swing back to the present, and I have given the album a dozen playbacks over the past few days, and there are a few things that stand out for me now, 21 years later. There is no denying that the album is still catchy, and that a few of the songs still hold their own after all these years. “Rocket”, “Animal”, “Gods of War”, “Run Riot” and “Don’t Shoot Shotgun” are still my favourite songs from the album, which was the case back in the day as well, and given they are what could be loosely termed the ‘harder’ songs on the album I guess that is no surprise.
If one was to try and pinpoint when the slide for this band began, perhaps it was the super success they had with the slower and sugary songs that came from this album – “Pour Some Sugar On Me”, “Love Bites”, “Hysteria” and “Love and Affection”. Sure, they are fine in their place, but they certainly don’t rate in the higher bracket on this album. But their success must surely have directed the band down the path that their music has taken in the past two decades, and that is a real shame.
Back to Hysteria however. I know I now rate this album slightly lower than I did all those years ago – partly through a change in the style of metal I prefer, and partly through my disappointment in the direction the band has taken since. Would Steve Clark’s head be spinning? I don’t know. It still brings back great memories of the band and the time for me, but it has certainly dated as well, and that is another telling factor. The ‘skip’ button even gets used on it these days for certain songs. I would never have imagined that twenty years ago.
Rating: The end of what had been a promising build up. 4/5.
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