DEF LEPPARD – Hysteria [Japan SHM-CD new remaster / Limited Release] (2023) HQ *Exclusive*
A few days ago Universal Music Japan started a new reissue campaign of DEF LEPPARD albums pressed on SHM-CD, a Limited Edition release on miniLP faithfully replicating the album first edition LP in miniature and the original Japanese OBI. This reissue differs from the previous (now sold out) SHM-CD reissues, as features a new remastering.
“Hysteria” is a classic, one of the best selling albums in history, and one of the best produced. This album sounds terrific. Every track sparkles and burns. There is no filler. Mutt Lange gets full credit as a co-composer. He is, in fact, the sixth Leppard — the one who takes their riffs and choruses and assembles them into spectacular tracks.
There’s the relentless big drums; the dazzling guitar montages; the impeccable sense of structure and separation; the preternatural clarity. None of which is to suggest that Lange could have made this album on his own. Def Leppard is a sharp, hot and dedicated stage band that really delivers live. Steve Clark and Phil Collen worked like a two-man guitar firestorm – note the pulsing slabs of sound they pump into “Rocket” and the keening leads on “Don’t Shoot Shotgun” and “Love and Affection”. Rick Allen (despite his accident) and bassist Rick Savage remain a formidable rhythm section, and singer Joe Elliott, this time out, has convincingly deepened his range…