By Stephen Kasenda
DEF LEPPARD "Adrenalize" (1992)
The loss of Steve Clark was painful, and with Rick Allen losing his arm few years back, life's been a hard slap for Def Leppard, but did they still bite hard after being silent for over 4 years? Surprisingly, the answer is a big yes, the album debuted #1 in the UK and went triple platinum in the US, quite a record in 1992 where grunge movement had started killing many glam bands.
The punchy anthem and kickin' riffs of "Let's Get Rocked" is a great concert starter. "Heaven Is", a marvelous melodic rock gem, is my favorite together with "Stand Up" and "I Wanna Touch You". "White Lightning" is an interesting lengthy epic that can be boring and brilliant at the same time, it's nice to see Leppard in a different form in this song but wait until you're blown away and left breathless with their greatest ballad ever made, "Have You Ever Needed Someone So Bad".
There's a big similarity on their musical style in this album with the Canadian rockstar, Bryan Adams' "Waking Up The Neighbours", which also a great album by the way, thanks to the godly-talent of Mutt Lange who handled both artists in the early 90s. Some Leppard fans found that Adrenalize was too typical and sounded like a weaker version of Hysteria, but with those great memorable songs inside, this album works out totally fine for me.
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