Overkill packaging as usual with tracking via USPS media for $4.00 and yes, I do combine. Since I have had a series of questions concerning shipping charges on combined orders I will try to be more explicit. Generally up to three lps ship as one, but shipping charges are based on weight not records. So gatefolds or double LPs or 180 gram vinyl all have an affect differently. Suffice to say, I don't try to make money on shipping charges and I am fair, so enjoy the auctions. Open records are cleaned with Ultrasonic cleaning system and in new 3 mil inner and outer plastic sleeves.

In many ways, Def Leppard were the definitive hard rock band of the '80s. There were many bands that rocked harder (and were more dangerous) than the Sheffield-based quintet, but few others captured the spirit of the times quite as well. Emerging in the late '70s as part of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal, Def Leppard actually owed more to the glam rock and metal of the early '70s, as their sound was equal parts T. Rex, Mott the Hoople, Queen, and Led Zeppelin. By toning down their heavy riffs and emphasizing melody, Def Leppard were poised for crossover success by the time of 1983's Pyromania, and skillfully used the fledgling MTV network to their advantage.

Where Pyromania had set the standard for polished, catchy pop-metal, Hysteria only upped the ante. Pyromania's slick, layered Mutt Lange production turned into a painstaking obsession with dense sonic detail on Hysteria, with the result that some critics dismissed the record as a stiff, mechanized pop sellout (perhaps due in part to Rick Allen's new, partially electronic drum kit). But Def Leppard's music had always employed big, anthemic hooks, and few of the pop-metal bands who had hit the charts in the wake of Pyromania could compete with Leppard's sense of craft; certainly none had the pop songwriting savvy to produce seven chart singles from the same album, as the stunningly consistent Hysteria did. Joe Elliott's lyrics owe an obvious debt to his obsession with T. Rex, particularly on the playfully silly anthem "Pour Some Sugar on Me," and the British glam rock tribute "Rocket," while power ballads like "Love Bites" and the title track lack the histrionics or gooey sentimentality of many similar offerings. The strong pop hooks and "perfect"-sounding production of Hysteria may not appeal to die-hard heavy metal fans, but it isn't heavy metal -- it's pop-metal, and arguably the best pop-metal ever recorded. Its blockbuster success helped pave the way for a whole new second wave of hair metal bands, while proving that the late-'80s musical climate could also be very friendly to veteran hard rock acts, a lead many would follow in the next few years.

Def Leppard ?– Hysteria

Label: Mercury ?– 422 830 675-1 Q-1, Mercury ?– 830 675-1 Q-1, Mercury ?– 830 675-1 Format: Vinyl, LP, Album
Country: US Released: 1987 Genre: Rock Style: Hard Rock

Tracklist

A1 Women 5:41 A2 Rocket 6:34 A3 Animal 4:02 A4 Love Bites 5:46 A5 Pour Some Sugar On Me 4:25 A6 Armageddon It 5:21 B1 Gods Of War 6:32 B2 Don't Shoot Shotgun 4:10 B3 Run Riot 4:38 B4 Hysteria 5:49 B5 Excitable 4:19 B6 Love And Affection 4:35