When Def Leppard‘s Hysteria came out 30 years ago, it made itself known as a massive achievement, its wall-to-wall sonics and skyscraping harmonies sounding like a turbo-charged version of the metal-edged pop the band had laid down on their prior LP, 1983’s Pyromania. “Every track sparkles and burns,” Kurt Loder wrote in his Rolling Stone review of the album. But the journey the band took to Hysteria was long and at times calamitous, marked by producer conflicts, lengthy recording sessions, record-company debts and a near-fatal car accident suffered by drummer Rick Allen. In advance of a new deluxe Hysteria reissue, out Friday, here are 10 facts about the album’s genesis and its current place in music history….
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