On May 16th, the world will see Rock and Classical royalty unite on Drastic Symphonies – a brand-new euphoric album featuring Def Leppard’s greatest produced tracks dramatically reimagined, and sounding more exhilarating than ever before, via the band teaming with London’s iconic The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.
This album represents a bold new approach to Def Leppard’s most loved songs. Def Leppard have deconstructed and rebuilt not only some of their most well-known tracks, but also some of their hidden gems as well. By and large, they have intertwined the audio from the original tapes and performed them alongside The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, consistently ranked as one of the world’s leading orchestras. The album additionally includes new vocals and guitars that culminate in stunningly beautiful symphonic arrangements, which at different points you can hear Joe Elliott duetting with his younger self.
Vocalist Joe Elliott says, “Def Leppard has always enjoyed veering off the expected path – working with the likes of Tim McGraw, Taylor Swift & Alison Krauss for example. So, when the offer to revisit some of our back catalogue with the Royal Philharmonic was presented to us, we all jumped at it. Although we’re far from the first band to ever do this, working directly with an orchestra at Abbey Road on some of our more orchestrated songs seemed too good of an opportunity to pass up.”
The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra was recorded at Abbey Road in March 2022 and is produced by Def Leppard, Ronan McHugh & Nick Patrick (producer of the following RPO/Orchestral albums –Elvis, Roy Orbison, Beach Boys and Buddy Holly), with arrangements by Eric Gorfain (Neil Diamond, Ryan Adams, Christina Aguilera).
Guitarist Phil Collen says, “When the offer of doing an orchestral album with the RPO was suggested, we were honored. But we didn’t just want an orchestra plonked over our previous recordings. We decided to create something special where we would have something classic but present it in a brand new way that would involve making everything work in the context of Drastic Symphonies. Recording new parts, remixing previous sounds, taking some of our instruments out so the orchestra could breathe, and literally making a new album. It was an amazingly inspirational process culminating in the live recording of the RPO at Abbey Road studios in London. An absolute team effort that took a good part of a year. It’s a new Def Leppard album, it’s a greatest hits plus album with some songs rarely heard before, it’s a live RPO album and we think it’s perfect. We’re so proud of how Drastic Symphonies turned out and can’t wait to share it to the world.”
The album will be available on CD, 2LP black vinyl, limited 2LP colored vinyl, limited 2LP picture disc, CD/Blu-Ray (Atmos) and digitally. Building upon elements from the album artwork, a collection of exclusive merch is now available for pre-order in the band’s official store.
Album tracklisting as follows:
• Turn To Dust
• Paper Sun
• Animal
• Pour Some Sugar on Me (Stripped version)
• Hysteria
• Love Bites
• Goodbye For Good This Time
• Love
• Gods Of War
• Angels (Can’t Help You Now)
• Bringin’ On the Heartbreak
• Switch 625
• Too Late for Love
• When Love & Hate Collide
• Kings Of the World
The vinyl and Atmos versions will also feature an exclusive bonus track
• Have You Ever Needed Someone So Bad
2022 saw Def Leppard release their critically and commercially acclaimed 12th studio album Diamond Star Halos which charted all over the world including a top 5 and top 10 in both North America and the U.K.. Early 2023, saw the band score a U.K. No 1 Netflix film with their cameo in acclaimed movie Bank Of Dave. Joe Elliott is also currently riding high in charts across the world with his guest vocal on the Ghost track Spillways.
The band also embarked on a sold-out stadium tour across North America with Mötley Crüe in 2022 – selling over 1.3 million tickets. February and March 2023 saw the tour wow audiences throughout Central and South America. In May, June and July the must-see tour of 2023 comes to Europe, including a stop at the iconic Wembley Stadium on July 1st.
Follow Def Leppard: Website, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube.
10 Responses
I will ask the same question I asked when KISS and Metallica released their “symphonic” albums: Is this really necessary? Aside from the curiosity factor and the novelty of it, I can’t imagine anyone who gives these albums repeated listens.
RTunes, I concur. I think Metallica’s “Master of Puppets” is a great thrash album. But, IMO, those songs performed with an orchestra just totally kills what made those songs great in the first place. Same with KI$$…. but I did think the orchestra complimented a couple of “Destroyer” songs pretty well due to Ezrin’s production of that album.
I always thought why mix hard rock with an orchestra? Its like mixing ice cream and shrimp …it sounds horrible
Robert,
I agree, it’s not in my wheelhouse at all.
“Animal” popped up on my Spotify last night when I was driving home attending a show. It was nice, but I was so used to the tempo of the original song that I couldn’t get into this slowed down version. As was just stated in a previous comment, I will give the album a “curiosity” listen when it’s released on Spotify, but I don’t see the necessity of purchasing it.
Ugh..I just heard the “New Animal”. Hortible. Terrible. A new low for the band IMO. I hate to be so negative but this is just awful. Trying to be ” artsy”.
I heard ‘Animal’ last night; not what I was expecting, but I still liked it.
I personally like hearing Rock & Metal bands backed by an orchestra. I really liked both the Metallica albums, the KISS one with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra was also a good one (even though Ace wasn’t there), and then there was the Scorpions and of course the, I would say, the originators of this concept Deep Purple. (Here’s a link to a 1999 performance of Smoke on the Water at the Royal Albert Hall in London featuring Ronnie James Dio and I believe the London philharmonic -https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nENrB7hvplY )
It for me adds a little something and in most parts makes things bigger. The London philharmonic are no strangers to this sort of thing; having done albums of songs by Elvis Presley, Roy Orbison, The Beach Boys and I think they may have also done Johnny Cash, but can’t be sure.