Def Leppard
Volume Two UMC/PARLOPHONE/BLUDGEON RIFFOLA
Encyclopaedic boxed vinyl round-up of a turbulent decade for the band.
As the 90s dawned, Def Leppard once again endured and survived trauma, as they had with Rick Allen’s accident before Hysteria, re-emerging after the death of guitarist Steve Clark in January 1991 with Adrenalize (1992), and negotiating a more uneven but ultimately successful path to the end of the decade.
More concise and punchy than its predecessor, Adrenalize continued in similar style, commercially and artistically untouched by the onset of grunge, with feelgood pop-rockers, a brooding, long-form tribute to Clark (White Lightning), and distinctive ballads which largely steered clear of 80s clichés. Closing the album was a harder-hitting re-recording of Tear It Down, a Hysteria-era flip-side deemed too strong to waste. That idea that shaped (1994), which marked the recording debut of new guitarist Viv Campbell and compiled a coherent mix of new songs (acoustic hit ), with tracks intended for other projects including the thunderous (written during sessions for ) and , initially written for Canadian rockers Helix.
