REVIEW: Def Leppard – On Through the Night (1980)

DEF LEPPARD – On Through the Night (1980 Phonogram)

A bright young LeBrain in grade 11,
During the glorious 80’s,
Needed new music to feel like heaven,
To woo some lovely young ladies.

In 1980 Def Leppard came out,
With the LP On Through the Night,
It is heavy with screams and plenty shouts,
It makes me feel alright alright alright.

“Hello America”! It’s the “Rock Brigade”!
I played these singles on my ghetto blaster,
Unpolished – but the tunes made the grade,
Heavy ones like “Answer to the Master”.

Producer was Tom Allom of Judas Priest fame,
A heavy raw album he did record,
Leppard had not yet joined the hit game,
No big tricks on the electronic soundboard.

“It Could Be You” rocking out to this one,
Reckless abandon with axes ablaze,
“Wasted” blasts you like a shotgun,
Nothing left to see but a smokey haze.

Sophistication will not be found anywhere,
Maybe a little on the closer “Overture”,
Loud guitars drums blasting and long hair,
For your metal sickness this is the cure.

On Through the Night straight into battle,
Leppard hit the launching pad hard,
With the New Wave of British Heavy Metal,
The Lep became leaders of the new guard.

The story continues today as Leppard survive,
Still prowling the concert stage all over the world,
Fans clamour to hear these old song lives,
And so on Viva Hysteria, “Wasted” was unfurled.

This is but the seed that would grow into a beast,
The mere beginning of something great,
Pick up this record at the very least,
You will find it is very difficult to hate.

4/5 stars

Further reading:

DEF LEPPARD – On Through the Night (1980) review by DEKE at ARENA ROCK
DEF LEPPARD – The Def Leppard E.P. (1979) EP review
DEF LEPPARD – “Wasted” / “Hello America” (1979) single review
DEF LEPPARD – “Hello America” / “Good Morning Freedom” (1980) single review

20 comments

    1. I’m in agreement. I’ve always looked at Def Leppard as being the melodic rock types. But then, I’ve only ever been familiar with the singles. That said, I listened to this album a few weeks ago and found it to be really accessible.

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      1. This one and High N’ Dry and great metal albums. High N’ Dry being a favourite. The only one of the “classic” albums I have left to review is Hysteria.

        In fact I think I only have two Def Lep studio albums left to review, and a live album. A bunch of singles too of course.

        Maybe that’s an idea for a theme week, finishing off the Def Lep collection.

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        1. Reckon that’s a swell idea. I’ll need to go check out those other Def Leppard reviews given that I have a few of those albums kicking around …

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  3. This is a really good album. I don’t know the main music Def Leppard are actually famous for yet, becuase I bought this in a bit of a NWOBHM-exploration phase and hadn’t ever checked out famous Def Leppard yet…. so maybe its bad for them, but in isolation, this is an excellent record.

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  7. Good album, a bit uneven here and there and unpolished, a bit too unpolished at times, actually. I like the rawness and the youthful hunger, but this album really couldn’t hold a candle to their more famous albums Pyromania or Hysteria or even Adrenalize. High n Dry was in the middle of them being young and hungry and a band that was going for a more polished sound. Brilliant record, that one.
    I love to pick this album every now and again, though.

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  8. Great underrated album! I like Overture a lot. Some of the riffs dare I say are a bit old Priest ish… Answer to the Master and a few others.

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