It took some time for my CD to actually come in. I listened on Spotify while I waited. I have to admit I was taken aback by the case. Not modern or elegant. I guess I was expecting a digipack.

As for the content, I'm just thrilled it's been remastered. Even upon the announcement I was more excited about the actual album being remastered than the bonus disc with early drafts. The second disc is definitely interesting and enjoyable, but I wouldn't say any of them made me go "I wish they had gone with that instead of what we got as final." I did like the slower groove of Black Train on the guitar, but not the chorus. Anger, I did not care for the chorus at all. The best of the lot for me is Raise Your Love, as I don't feel that is necessarily inferior to Slang. They both have their merits.

I also ordered the Vinyl version. I haven't really given it a listen. I kinda burned myself out streaming it on Spotify, but I'll come back to it. It just has to be the right setting.

Going to see the Leps with KISS on July 5th. I have low expectations for both when it comes to the setlists, I'm just going to be thrilled to be seeing them at this point in life. I have yet to truly have a "damn, that was awesome!" moment with Def Leppard. The first time was on the Adrenalize tour and besides hating the album, I didn't like the retread of the Hysteria show minus Steve Clark, who drove the original production with his stage performance whether people realized it or not. The best so far has been on the X tour, and that was more my issue (I drove all day up to San Francisco and arrived at the venue just minutes before they hit, so I had no energy.) Again, that was an album I wasn't crazy about (but tried my hardest to like.) At least it was a step or two above Adrenalize. Last time was on the Sparkle Lounge tour in a freaking tent on a reservation. Energy was just bleh. Even Mirror, Mirror did nothing for me despite anticipating it. The one new song was "Nine Lives" which I hate with a passion and have deleted from the album.

I'm with you on "Anger". The chorus is just lame and amature.

I was also expecting a matching digipack to go with the other deluxe editions so the fat-boy dual case threw me a bit at first, but now I think it's fitting with the era the album is from.

I'm keen on what they'll include on Euphoria as I never bothered picking up the singles.

Slang Deluxe edition sucks. The B-sides are even worse than the versions that made it to the original disc. Anger, LOL what a horrible chorus. I can't believe a band that released HnD, Pyro and Hysteria came up with that turd.

Looking forward to that Euphoria deluxe edition.

PHOTOS: Def Leppard guitarist wears Gene Simmons KISS gear: http://www.hennemusic.com/2014/07/ph...ears-gene.html

I'd like to go to this show, but tickets are a little high at the moment. :-/ Hopefully I'll find a deal the week they come to town. The Dead Daisies will be opening for them when the hit Atlantic City, so that's gotten me a little more excited about it. :-)

(Classic Rock) Phil Collen says Kiss are fully deserving of their place in the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame but he insists he couldn't care less if Def Leppard are ever inducted.
The Def Leppard guitarist praises Kiss - who are currently on a mammoth co-headlining tour with Leppard - but is adamant he wasn't bothered about following in their bootprints.

He tells Shmonty And Conklin's radio show: "I think it's great that Kiss got in there. They should be there. They're an American band 40 years and they've been snubbed.

"For me, I really don't care, whatever. The way I look at it, I've got two diamond albums sitting on my mantelpiece - that's 10 times platinum. I've got two albums. That means the fans went out and bought it, so that means a lot more to me."

http://classicrock.teamrock.com/news...t-hall-of-fame

Right on, Phil!

(hennemusic) Def Leppard guitarist Vivian Campbell married his longtime girlfriend Caitlin Phaneuf on Friday and also explained to fans why he received a "buzz" haircut.
"My girl and I got married yesterday," posted Campbell on Saturday. "We had a great ceremony featuring family and friends and the Leppard band and crew. So happy! Pictures to follow."

He also shared an update on his ongoing battle with the return of his Hodgkin's lymphoma. "In other news, I have to buzz cut my hair as I'm leaving most of it on my pillow due to the new chemo I just started," he wrote. "I'll be sporting a new 'do' tonight in Irvine [California]."

Campbell and Def Leppard are currently on a summer tour of North America with KISS, which wraps up August 31; he'll then be able to refocus his energies on more treatment.

"I'm actually doing this new high-tech chemo treatment, I'm about halfway through it already, and it's really kind of easy going," he recently told The Daily Herald. "It's the first new drug that's been discovered for Hodgkin's since 1977 and they made this discovery in 2011, and it's actually being pioneered here at City of Hope, so I'm part of this research clinical trial that's going on."

http://www.hennemusic.com/2014/07/de...s-married.html

Congrats and best wishes to Vivan. I can't believe he's doing a DF tour while batteling cancer. Amazing guy.

DEF LEPPARD singer Joe Elliott recently spoke to Guitar International about the progress of the songwriting sessions for the band's next studio effort.

"Well, the new DEF LEPPARD album is, at this moment in time, just a writing session that lasted the entire month of February," he said. "We were hoping, at best, for three or four songs, maybe five. We ended up walking out of there with 12. They're all in various stages of undress, if you like. There are three songs that I think we could actually release tomorrow. The other nine are anywhere from having 'la-la melodies' to 'we need to record it properly.' But we've filled them up with songs that will be in the album. We'll probably pick 12 from 16 or something like that. But we've got 12, and I'm going to be working on one of them this evening.

"We're all coming back to my place the last two weeks of May to do a bit more. It will probably be more writing than recording, because we don't believe we've finished writing yet, even though we've got all those songs on the go. And then there's the tour with KISS this summer, which will take us through to September. In October, I'll be producing BLACK STAR RIDERS' second album until the end of November and then go back and finish recording and mixing the LEPPARD record. The vocals get done last, so I'll be singing up to and beyond Christmas. I'm hoping, fingers crossed, but I am making this up as I go along, so bear that in mind that we can actually deliver the CD by February 2015."

Asked about the vibe of the 12 songs that have been written thus far, Elliott said: "It's exactly what DEF LEPPARD has come to be known for. Say, from 'Hysteria' onwards, there's a lot more variety to what we did. 'Pyromania' was a solid record, but other than a couple of slow ones, all the songs was pretty much a similar feel. 'High 'N' Dry' was very much that way too. Maybe the first album was a bit more, say adventurous — but a bit more unfocused, if you like. With 'Hysteria', we realized that we could go in any direction we wanted to. We had big, glorious ballads like 'Love Bites'; strip-around songs like 'Sugar'; massive, epic pieces like 'Gods Of War'; pop songs like 'Animal' and 'Love And Affection'; straight-forward rockers like 'Run Riot'. We were covering all bases, and that's because everybody in the band was starting to contribute more and more to the writing and everybody in the band is different.

"In the mid-'90s we had 'Slang', where we had the title track which was a full-on romp through us doing Bowie meets Prince. Some of the stuff sounded like ZEPPELIN while others sounded like an R&B band. We were just letting our musical individuality ooze out.

"On these new recordings, they're all very much guitar-based, rock and roll songs — almost punk. Some of the stuff is BEATLES-esque with mellotron. We're all over the place. It's not unfocused; it's not a collection of songs that all sound the same. It's very, very wide cinemascope when it comes to the kind of tunes that we've written. There really is a bit of everything."


Read more at http://www.blabbermouth.net/news/def...iiktJkEPwOR.99

Sounds bloody awesome. Keen to hear what they can produce.

My thoughts exactly K, I'm very much looking forward to this.

(hennemusic) Def Leppard singer Joe Elliott has revealed in a new radio interview that the band will delay its 'Viva! Pyromania' Las Vegas residency this was to take place this fall due, and instead the band will be focusing on making a new studio album.

"Yes, we are gonna go back and probably do 'Viva! Pyromania'. But it'll not be [until] towards the end of next year, because we've got a new record in the making," Elliott told WKGR 98.7 in West Palm Beach, Florida.

"When this tour [with KISS] ends - this tour ends mid-September - and then we'll take a couple of weeks off to just go see our families and remind them that we exist.

"And then we're gonna get back on the horse and start finishing [the new Def Leppard] album off. We did a month [writing and recording] in February, we did two weeks in May, and then we're gonna spend the rest of the year when the tour is done - most of it, at least - recording this album so we can get it out for springtime."

"And that means, if we can do that," he continued, "we'll get back out on the road by April or so, and I think we're gonna head off Down Under first, do Australia, Japan, maybe some more areas of the Far East, South Africa, and then come back up and do Europe and then we'll be back in the States in the summer and then go around the rest of the world after that. So, yeah, think we're gonna be in November 2015, back in Vegas again."

http://www.hennemusic.com/2014/07/de...las-vegas.html