Band:	Def Leppard
Album:	Adrenalize
Style:	Hard rock
Release date:	March 30, 1992
Guest review by:	Hermann Langke

01. Let's Get Rocked
02. Heaven Is
03. Make Love Like A Man
04. Tonight
05. White Lightning
06. Stand Up (Kick Love Into Motion)
07. Personal Property
08. Have You Ever Needed Someone So Bad
09. I Wanna Touch U
10. Tear It Down

Emerging at the tail end of the 70's Def Leppard are, without a shadow of a doubt, one of the biggest rock 'n' roll bands in the world. Their reputation was built upon multi-platinum albums, vast stadium-choking tours and, of course, their frustrating tendency to create a new album.

Everything regarding Def Leppard written in the last line is true as we are all a witness to it. The time span needed to write such masterpieces as Pyromania and Hysteria is more than an ample proof but than can also be attributed to drummer Rick Allen's tragic accident of losing an arm in a car accident. Also these two albums saw Def Leppard sell out, both, their albums as well the following tours at a speed faster than the speed of light, well almost literally! But I won't be writing about any of the two albums. They are classic in their own way but are not my personal favourite Def Leppard album. Mine is their relatively less known but also their heaviest album, at least in my opinion, Adrenalize!

In my earlier review for their 1999 album Euphoria, I wrote that I became a fan of this form of music solely because of Def Leppard. But there was one song which started it all for me and that song was "Let's Get Rocked"! Opening with the lines "Do you wanna get rocked....." it was that defining moment for me. I get nostalgic whenever I watch the animated video for that song and I still do. But what I like best about that song is Phil Collen's hyperfast solo. But that's not the only highlight of the album. Def Leppard are the past masters when it comes to writing songs on love or love making and why not? Songs like "Make Love Like A Man", "I Wanna Touch You", "Personal Property" and "Stand Up (Kick Love Into Motion)" are more than apt demonstrations of it. "Stand Up (Kick Love Into Motion)" is, almost, like a manual on the art of seduction and it has that orgasmic solo which would take one to the Seventh Heaven of love making. I am using the word "orgasmic" because that's exactly how I feel every time I listen to that solo and the word is no misnomer in this regard. "Have You Ever Needed Someone So Bad" is that sappy ballad which is not atypical of a band like Def Leppard. In Hysteria, we had "Love Bites" and in Adrenalize it's this.

But, in my opinion, the highlight of the album is "White Lightning", which was written as a requiem for their original guitarist, Steve Clark, who died on the 8th of February, 1991 of a drug overdose. It's a kind of tribute to the Grim Reaper who will always come for your soul, no matter what. It also chastises Steve Clark who let his soul be taken away by the Reaper, and that too, when he was at his artistic prime.

Adrenalize is that album which came out at a time when grunge had exploded and all of the 80's hair metal and pop metal were about to bite the dust. Same can be said of Def Leppard as well. But rather than end its heydays in a whimper Def Leppard went out like a block-buster. And block-buster it was for Adrenalize was the heaviest album they ever made. I sometimes feel that the sound of Adrenalize is a cross between the NWOBHM sound that would give them their ticket to fame, in the first place, or that pop metal sound they pioneered with Hysteria or even their sound in Euphoria. But I really would not like to dwell much on it as Adrenalize is my favourite Def Leppard album, no matter what! Do you wanna get rocked? Sure, I do!

In Loving Memory of Steve Clark (1960-1991)