Def Leppard are known for taking long gaps between albums, but this might the longest. It has been 7 years since the last studio album, the 2015, self-titled gem, ‘Def Leppard’. Now, the band is back with an album that pays tribute to the era of glam rock with the likes of David Bowie, T. Rex and so many more. In fact, the title of their 12th studio album, ‘Diamond Star Halos’, is taken from the T. Rex 1971 song, “Get It On”. This is something Joe Elliott has been exploring with his Down ‘N’ Outz side project, but now that has leaked in to the Def Leppard camp…well, not really, as it has always been there. As Joe Elliott, Rick Allen, Rick Savage, Phil Collen and Vivian Campbell were all influenced by the great music of the 70’s.
‘Diamond Star Halos’ was released on May 27, 2022 and went all the way to #10 on the Billboard 200 album chart and even #5 in their UK home. Not a bad position for a band that have been around for over 40 years. And of course, I bought this album 4 times!! You read that right. I have the Target Exclusive vinyl with the yellow/red translucent vinyl and tarot card litho, but that is not all. I have 2 Japanese CDs as well. Why 2? Well, each one comes with 2 different bonus tracks so I had to have them both. And we don’t stop there. I even bought the cassette…yes, they put out a cassette with this one too. I had to have every format. Wait…hold the presses, I almost forgot. I also have the SDE Surround Sound version on Blu Ray and Dolby Atmos. So, I guess I have bought this album 5 times…yes, I have a problem.
Enough about my problems, let’s talk the album. It opens with the song “Take What You Want” which I swear is a throwback to ‘Pyromania’ era Leppard. I heavy rocker (well, as heavy as they get nowadays). Gang vocals, gritty riff, catchy chorus, it is all there. Then they glam it out with “Kick”. A poppy rock song that harkens back to T. Rex and Mott the Hoople. I admit, I like this one. Damn, is it catchy and gets stuck in your head.
“Fire It Up” cranks up the rock with some slamming riff, heavy bass from Sav and pounding drums from Allen. Joe almost raps the vocals and the chorus is layered with vocals as they are known to do. Their choruses are always huge. I have a love/hate with this one. Musically, killer…the rapping style lyrics, not so much.
Then the first major misstep for me is the country-vibed song “This Guitar” with Alison Krauss. I love Alison Krauss and I love Def Leppard, but they don’t go together. I hated the Tim McGraw song they did as well a couple albums back. The bonus version track that is only Joe singing, I like much better. But it is still a very cheesy, over-the-top ballad.
“SOS Emergency” has a nasty riff and sounds like Def Leppard with all it’s markings. Not a bad thing, but nothing new either. A basic, paint-by-number Leppard rocker. But that all gets better with “Liquid Dust” which harkens back to the ‘Slang’ album. This Collen penned track is probably my favorite track on the album for its dark overtones and if you can remind of the ‘Slang’ album, I’m all for it as I loved that one.
“U Rok Mi”, despite it’s horrible spelling trick (didn’t that stop decades ago), I like this one. I like the guitar sound, a little acoustic a little mandolin sounding. It sounds like Def Leppard and that is always a good thing. Then we get the best ballad on the album with “Goodbye For Good This Time”. It’s lush orchestration and beautiful piano work match perfectly with Joe’s emotive vocals. One of the best they’ve done in years.
Then we get “All We Need” and well, I need more than this. An ‘Adrenalize’ sounding song and that doesn’t nothing for me. Very generic and boring track with a big chorus that gives it some life (listen to the harmony on those vocals…so good). But it is short-lived once back to the next verse. Then we get saved by Sav’s killer bass work on “Open Your Eyes”. For some reason, I hear this one and think ‘Retro Active’ and I mean that in the best way possible as another album I love. A little more adventurous song and not their typical cookie cutter song. It is a little darker and darker is good.
“Gimme A Kiss” or “Gimme A Kiss That Rocks”, depending which album version you get. This is one of those cheesy rockers that Leppard does that is so bad it is good. Think “Let’s Get Rocked”. A great stadium anthem even if it is corny. Oh yeah…the call-outs to the band Kiss are a nice touch!! Then we get another ballad with “Angels (Can’t Help You Now” and I have to admit, I like this one too. Leppard can still write a good ballad. Joe does them so well, what’s not to like. More orchestration and gang vocal harmonies and a chorus that is so dramatic and theatrically huge.
Then we get another Alison Krauss featured song with “Lifeless” and this one is flat our horrible. The twangy guitars and fake electronic drum sound is simply horrid. Ugh!! I like the bonus track with only Joe a little better. “Unbreakable” saves us by getting back to the heavy, but there is more horrible sounding electronic drum sound. I don’t remember Rick Allen’s drums sounding like this…not good. The chorus is big like you’d expect and catchy as hell…but I can’t get past that drum sound. Not Rick’s fault, this is pure production choices.
The final track is “From Here to Eternity” feels epic. Reminds of songs like “White Lightning” and “Paper Sun”. Very Queen-like in it’s grandiose style. When they take a darker tone to the music, they hit it out of the park. A great way to go out on the album. Now, there are bonus tracks on the Japanese versions, but they are just different mixes of album tracks so not worth our time. We’ll end with this one.
- Take What You Want – Keeper
- Kick – Keeper
- Fire It Up – Keeper (1/2 Point)
- This Guitar – Delete
- SOS Emergency – Keeper – (1/2 Point)
- Liquid Dust – Keeper
- U Rok Mi – Keeper
- Goodbye For Good This Time – Keeper
- All We Need – Delete
- Open Your Eyes – Keeper
- Gimme A Kiss – Keeper (1/2 Point)
- Angles (Can’t Help You Now) – Keeper
- Lifeless – Delete
- Unbreakable – Keeper (1/2 Point)
- From Here to Eternity – Keeper
The Track Score is 10 out of 15 Tracks of 67%. I have to say, this album is about 5 tracks too long. Why the need to release so many tracks is crazy. Maybe that thought after 7 years we needed more, but a 10 song album is really all we ever need. An hour is too long nowadays. The album also isn’t that heavy. It reminds me more of ‘X’ in that it is poppy and a lot of ballads. I don’t like the Alison Krauss songs either. A whole lot of misses, but I do like a lot on here as well. The darker songs I find the most interesting and the little anthems they have aren’t too bad either. My Overall Score is a 3.0 out of 5.0 Stars. Not there best effort, but still Def Leppard and still some shines of life in the band. They ain’t done yet as they can still write some good songs.
NEXT UP: DEF LEPPARD – ‘HIGH & DRY’ – PICTURE DISC (RSD) (2022)
THE DEF LEPPARD COLLECTION SERIES
- Def Leppard E.P. – 7″ Single (1979)
- First Strikes 1978-1979 (Bootleg CD)
- Girl – Sheer Greed (1980)
- On Through the Night (1980)
- When the Walls Came Tumbling Down (April 26 1980) (2020)
- High & Dry (1981)
- Too Many Jitterbugs – B-Sides And Rarities (2020)
- Raw – Early BBC Recordings (2020)
- Girl – Wasted Youth (1982)
- Pyromania (1983)
- “Photograph” 7″ Single (1983)
- “Too Late For Love” 12″ Single (1983)
- Live at the L.A. Forum 1983 (2018)
- Seattle, August 3, 1983 (Bootleg CD)
- Pyromania TV Collection (Bootleg DVD)
- Hysteria (1987)
- “Animal” 7″ Single (1987)
- “Women” 7″ Single (1987)
- “Pour Some Sugar on Me” 7″ Single (1987)
- “Hysteria” 7″ Single (1987)
- “Armageddon It” 7″ Single (1988)
- “Love Bites” 7″ Single (1988)
- “Rocket” 7″ Single (1989)
- Animal Instinct – The Def Leppard Story – Book Review (1987)
- Rarities – Volume One (2018)
- Live in Mountain View – August 17, 1988 (Bootleg DVD)
- Historia – DVD (1988)
- Live: In the Round, In Your Face (CD Video / DVD) (1989)
- Adrenalize (1992)
- “Have You Ever Needed Someone So Bad” – Cassette Single (1992)
- “Tonight” CD Single (1993)
- Live Sheffield 1992 (Bootleg DVD)
- Retro Active (1993)
- Visualize DVD (1993)
- Hard Rock Café – Singapore, Malaysia October 26, 1995 (Bootleg DVD)
- Vault: Def Leppard Greatest Hits (1980-1995) (1995)
- “When Love & Hate Collide” – CD Promo Single (1995)
- Video Archive (1995)
- Slang (1996)
- Montreal: The Classic 1996 Broadcast (Bootleg CD)
- Live Bites: FM Broadcast (Bootleg CD)
- Live in Argentina 1997 (Bootleg DVD)
- Euphoria (1999)
- Rarities – Volume Two (2019)
- Rarities – Volume Three (2019)
- Tokyo 1999 (Bootleg CD)
- Cybernauts – Live (2000)
- Cybernauts – The Further Adventures of the Cybernauts (2001)
- X (2002)
- Hysteria: Classic Albums DVD (2002)
- Best of Def Leppard (2004)
- Rock of Ages: The Definitive Collection (2005)
- Yeah! (2006)
- Yeah! Bonus CD with Backstage Interviews (2006)
- Songs from the Sparkle Lounge (2008)
- Man Raze – Surreal (2008)
- B-Sides (2021)
- Yeah! II (2021)
- Yeah! Live (2021)
- CMT Crossroads – Taylor Swift & Def Leppard (2009)
- Down ‘N’ Outz -My ReGeneration (2010)
- Man Raze – PunkFunkRootsRock (2011)
- Down ‘N’ Outz -The Further Adventures of… (2014)
- Def Leppard (2015)
- Personal Jesus 7″ Single (2018)
- Down ‘N’ Outz -This is How We Roll (2019)
- Hits Vegas: Live at Planet Hollywood – Vinyl (2020)
- Hysteria: Live – Vinyl (2020)
- Def Leppard Acoustic Vegas – 10″ Vinyl (2020)
- Down ‘N’ Outz – The Music Box E.P. (2020)
- Diamond Star Halos (2022)
- High & Dry – Picture Disc (RSD) (2022)
- Drastic Symphonies (2023)
- Drastic Symphonies – Picture Disc (2023)
- Definitely: The Official Story of Def Leppard (2023)
- Def Leppard – ‘One Night Only: Live at The Leadmill’ (RSD) (2024)
- “Just Like ’73” – 7″ Single (2024)
PREVIOUSLY POSTED:
- The Def Leppard E.P. (1979/2017)
- Def Leppard: Interview Picture Disc (1982?)
- “Bringin’ On the Heartbreak” – 12″ Promo Single (1984)
- Live at the Top (Bootleg) (1987)
- “Pour Some Sugar on Me” – 5″ Shaped Picture Disc (1987)
- Hysteria U.S. Tour 1988 – Tour Book (1988)
- “Make Love Like a Man” – 12″ Single (1992)
- “Let’s Get Rocked” – 12″ Single (1992)
- Adrenalize: The 7 Day Weekend Tour (1992/1993)
- X: World Tour (2003)
- Mirrorball – Live & More (2011)
- Def Leppard: The Definitive Visual History – Book Review (2011)
- Viva! Hysteria (2013)
- And There Will Be A Next Time…Live from Detroit (2017)
- Hysteria: 30th Anniversary Box Set (2017)
- The Story So Far – The Best of (2018)
- The Collection, Volume 1 (2018)
- Hysteria: The Singles Box Set (2018)
- Live at Abbey Road Studios (2018)
- Def Leppard: Concert Review – Charlotte, NC June 9th 2018 (2018)
- The Story So Far – The Best of Volume 2 (2019)
- The Collection, Volume 2 (2019)
- London to Vegas (2020)
- Rock & Roll Hall of Fame 29 March 2019 (2020)
- The Early Years ’79-’81 (2020)
- The Collection, Volume 3 (2021)
- Def Leppard Funko Pop!
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