11. Def Leppard On Through the Night 1980 (Vertigo)
Heavy Metal
Midnight, bright light, shining from the sky!
Album
Def Leppard were just one of the many NWOBHM bands around at the time of its inception and much like Iron Maiden they were a band destined to get everything right from the word go. They would soon seize their opportunity to become a leading light of the NWOBHM movement, before then finally going onto to world-wide fame in just a few short years! For many a year I often overlooked Def’s debut in favour of their harder edged second album
High ‘n’ Dry, but since re-listening for the 1980 list, their debut album
On Through the Night has become one of my most beloved albums from the NWOBHM era and it really pains me that this album misses out on a treasured ‘Top 10’ slot due to the amazing competition out there, because
On Through the Night is a great album that would easily make a top 10 in another year. Def Leppard need little introduction and from the word go they had a solid line-up (after a rocky start) in Joe Elliot-Vocals, Steve Clark-Guitar, Pete Willis-Guitar, Rick Savage-Bass and Rick Allen-Drums, and the good fortune to have producer Tom ’Colonel’ Allom who had previously worked as a sound engineer with Black Sabbath and would of course go onto work famously with Judas Priest for much of the 1980s. But before Tom Allom had produced their debut set, just a year earlier Def had reelased their 3-track E.P the simply titled
The Def Leppard E.P. often referred to as
Getcha Rocks Off after its best known track and this laid down the core sound of the band. As said several times already, a huge number of NWOBHM bands actually treasured melody over muscle and Def Leppard were prime proponents of this approach especially in their early days. So what makes the Def Leppard debut a very good album and also helped changed my mind on it? Firstly it reminds me of the Stray debut amost a decade earlier, in that it shows the pure adolescent desire of a band that totally knew the sound that they were looking for. Secondly they displayed their talent by incorporating all the bands that inspired them and these covered a vast array of bands from hard rock to glam rock and they did what every good band does, and that was to incorporate these influences into their own distinctive sound, rather than just making a blatant copy. Thirdly the band had that unique and nostalgic feel to their own brand of metal which from the word go was unmistakably Def Leppard! By the time of their next album though, producer Tom Allom would be gone and the renowned John Robert “Mutt” Lange would be their next producer and as they say the rest is history.