Pyromania (album)

Pyromania is the third studio album by English rock band Def Leppard, released on 20 January 1983 through Vertigo Records in Europe and through Mercury Records in the US. The first album to feature guitarist Phil Collen who replaced founding member Pete Willis, Pyromania was produced by Robert John "Mutt" Lange. The album was a shift away from the band's traditional heavy metal roots toward a more radio-friendly sound, finding massive mainstream success. Pyromania charted at No. 2 on the Billboard 200, No. 4 on the Canadian RPM Album chart and No. 18 on the UK Albums Chart. Selling over ten million copies in the US, it has been certified diamond by the RIAA.

Recording

In January 1982, the band began writing and pre-production for Pyromania in Sheffield; at Lange's suggestion, they focused on gathering song ideas (i.e. guitar riffs, vocal ideas) rather than finished songs that Lange would change. Thus, when they reconvened with Lange in London, together they would select the best ideas to assemble into finished songs.

The band and Lange followed a unique approach of recording with the album: the bass parts and guitars were recorded first to a click track provided by a Linn LM-1 drum machine, with the drums being added last in the process. This gave them flexibility to rearrange and re-cut parts of the song as they went along in the studio. The band also had a hard time getting the required guitar sounds, going through multiple Marshall amplifiers; at one point they wanted to burn all of the amplifiers, inspiring the album's title. "I had all the fun stuff, none of the heavy lifting..." Collen remembered. "Pete and Steve [Clark] had done these amazing rhythm guitar beds, and it was a joy to whizz around and play solos over the top... Mutt [Lange] was going, 'Just have fun: be a lead guitarist, go nuts. On the original LP release, Willis is visible in the background of the photograph of singer Joe Elliott, while Collen has his own photo as a new full-time member.

The album can be seen as a transitional one between the heavy metal sound of Leppard's first two albums and the radio-friendly direction of later releases. It featured rockers such as "Rock! Rock! (Till You Drop)", "Stagefright" and "Die Hard the Hunter" as well as the Top 40 hits "Photograph", "Rock of Ages" and "Foolin'".

Release

With its melodic hooks and heavy MTV exposure, Pyromania became a massive success, and was a major catalyst for the 1980s pop-metal movement.

After being released on January 20 1983, it became the first glam metal album to reach top ten in the Billboard charts on March 12, later it peaked at number two on May 14, then staying in the top ten albums until it dropped to eleventh place on November 26, eventually falling off the Billboard 200 chart after 123 weeks.

"Photograph", "Rock of Ages" and "Foolin'" became top 40 singles on the Billboard Hot 100 in the US, with "Photograph" peaking at No. 13 and "Rock of Ages" at No. 16.

Critical reception and legacy

Pyromania has received mostly positive reviews, being commonly considered, along with its follow-up, Hysteria, one of the band's finest efforts to date, and one of "Mutt" Lange's best productions. David Fricke of Rolling Stone praised Leppard for putting "much-needed fire back on the radio", producing sophisticated music "more emotionally charged than most of the synthesized disco that passes for 'modern music'" over the airwaves; adding that the band "may not be highly original, but they mean what they play" and "Lange's artfully busy mix" easily covers up any fault.

In contrast, Canadian journalist Martin Popoff considers Pyromania the beginning of Leppard's "creative degeneration" and criticizes Lange's "painstaking approach to detail" that strips the album "of its sweat and grit", making it sound "phony".

In 2003, the album was ranked No. 384 on Rolling Stone<nowiki/>'s 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. In 2006, Q magazine placed the album at No. 35 in its list of "40 Best Albums of the '80s". In 2015, Rolling Stone ranked Pyromania at No. 17 among the 50 Greatest Hair Metal Albums of All Time, and in 2017, the same magazine listed the album at No. 52 on its list of the 100 Greatest Metal Albums of All Time. In 2024, Loudwire staff elected it as the best hard rock album of 1983.

Track listing

Original release

"Comin' Under Fire" and "Action! Not Words" are listed inversely on the original Mercury vinyl release, but play in the order above.
The last 56 seconds of track 10 following "Billy's Got a Gun" is a hidden track named "The March of the Wooden Zombies".

2009 deluxe edition bonus disc

Personnel

Def Leppard

Joe Elliott – lead vocals
Steve Clark – guitars, backing vocals
Phil Collen – guitar solos (tracks 1–3, 6, 7), backing vocals
Rick Savage – bass, backing vocals
Rick Allen – drums, backing vocals
Pete Willis – rhythm guitar (all tracks)

Additional musicians

"The Leppardettes" (Robert John "Mutt" Lange, Terry Wilson-Slesser, Rocky Newton, Pete Overend Watts, Chris Thompson) – backing vocals
John Kongos – Fairlight CMI programming
Thomas Dolby – keyboard (credited as Booker T. Boffin)
Tony Kaye – additional keyboards (uncredited)

Production

Robert John "Mutt" Lange – producer, mixing
Mike Shipley – engineer
Nigel Green – engineer, mixing (uncredited)
Bob Ludwig – mastering
Bernard Gudynas – front cover illustration
David Landslide – back cover photograph
Satori – album sleeve concept and design

Charts

{| class="wikitable sortable plainrowheaders" style="text-align:center"

|+ 1983–1984 chart performance for Pyromania

! scope="col"| Chart (1983–1984)

! scope="col"| Peak<br />position

! scope="row"| Australian Albums (Kent Music Report)

| 70

! scope="row"| Finnish Albums (The Official Finnish Charts)

| 30

!scope="row"|Japanese Albums (Oricon)

| 70

{| class="wikitable sortable plainrowheaders" style="text-align:center"

|+ 2024 chart performance for Pyromania

! scope="col"| Chart (2024)