纵火狂 (1983)

Pyromania is the third studio album by English rock band Def Leppard, released on 20 January 1983 through Vertigo Records in Europe and through Mercury Records in the US. The first album to feature guitarist Phil Collen who replaced founding member Pete Willis, Pyromania was produced by Robert John "Mutt" Lange. The album was a shift away from the band's traditional heavy metal roots toward a more radio-friendly sound, finding massive mainstream success. Pyromania charted at No. 2 on the Billboard 200, No. 4 on the Canadian RPM Album chart and No. 18 on the UK Albums Chart. Selling over ten million copies in the US, it has been certified diamond by the RIAA.

Recording

In January 1982, the band began writing and pre-production for Pyromania in Sheffield. At Lange's suggestion, they focused on generating song ideas such as guitar riffs, or vocal and lyric fragments, rather than finished songs. The idea was to assemble songs in the studio, rather than arrive with pre-written songs which Lange would likely want to change. When they reconvened with Lange in London, the band and Lange would select the best ideas to assemble into finished songs.

The band and Lange followed an unusual approach of recording with the album: the bass parts and guitars were recorded first to a click track provided by a Linn LM-1 drum machine, with the drums being added last in the process. This contrasted with the more typical practice of recording drums parts first, and gave them flexibility to rearrange and re-cut parts of the song as they went along in the studio. The band also had trouble finding guitar sounds they preferred, and tried multiple Marshall amplifiers. At one point they wanted to burn all the amplifiers, inspiring the album's title.

The album was partially recorded with original guitarist Pete Willis, whose rhythm guitar tracks appear on all songs. On 11 July 1982, Willis was fired for alcohol abuse which hampered his musical performance. He was quickly replaced by guitarist Phil Collen, who was already friends with the band and stepped in to add guitar solos to several songs. "I had all the fun stuff, none of the heavy lifting..." Collen remembered. "Pete and Steve [Clark] had done these amazing rhythm guitar beds, and it was a joy to whizz around and play solos over the top... Mutt [Lange] was going, 'Just have fun: be a lead guitarist, go nuts.'" On the original LP release, Willis is visible in the background of the photograph of singer Joe Elliott, while Collen has his own photo as a new full-time member.

The album can be seen as a transitional one between the heavy metal sound of Leppard's first two albums and the radio-friendly hard rock direction of later releases. It featured rockers such as "Rock! Rock! (Till You Drop)", "Stagefright" and "Die Hard the Hunter" as well as the Top 40 hits "Photograph", "Rock of Ages" and "Foolin'".

Release

With its melodic hooks and heavy MTV exposure, Pyromania became a massive success, and was a major catalyst for the 1980s pop-metal movement. The album sold six million copies in the US in its original release (about 100,000 copies per week for much of the year). It has since sold over ten million there and been certified diamond. In 1989, it was re-released by audio fidelity company Mobile Fidelity Sound Labs as part of their Ultradisc series.

After being released in January 1983, it became the first glam metal album to reach top ten in the Billboard charts on March 12, later it peaked at number two on May 14, then staying in the top ten albums until it dropped to eleventh place on November 26, eventually falling off the Billboard 200 chart after 123 weeks.

"Photograph", "Rock of Ages" and "Foolin'" became top 40 singles on the Billboard Hot 100 in the US, with "Photograph" peaking at No. 13 and "Rock of Ages" at No. 16. "Photograph" (6 weeks) and "Rock of Ages" (1 week) both topped the Billboard Top Rock Tracks while "Foolin'" and "Too Late for Love" made the Top 10. "Comin' Under Fire", "Billy's Got a Gun" and "Action! Not Words" made the top 40 of the Top Rock Tracks chart.

In Canada, "Rock of Ages" charted highest at No. 24, while "Photograph" and "Foolin'" reached No. 32 and No. 39, respectively. At CHUM-AM in Toronto, one of Canada's largest audience Top 40 stations at the time, "Rock of Ages" never reached its Top 30 countdown; whereas 70 km away in Hamilton, at the CKOC-AM Top 40 radio station, it peaked at No. 2. It also topped the chart at many album-oriented rock stations such as Q107 in Toronto. "Rock of Ages" also charted the highest in the UK at No. 41 compared to No. 66 for "Photograph".