Def Leppard Goes Orchestral For ‘Drastic Symphonies’

Def Leppard is going the orchestral route on May 19th with the release of their latest album, titled, Drastic Symphonies, featuring, “tracks dramatically reimagined by London’s iconic Royal Philharmonic Orchestra” — along with new vocals and instrumentation from the band.

Frontman Joe Elliott said in the album's official announcement, “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.”

Guitarist Phil Collen added: “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.”

Joe Elliott remains amazed that bands with multi-decade histories are still able to move sizable numbers of new records and pack arenas and stadiums across the globe: “We were in the front end of a whole new way of doin' this and we're lucky that we've stayed together to be able to exploit that and enjoy it and all that kind of stuff. But even when we got together, we thought (we'd be around) maybe five or 10 years — because that's all there was. There was an eight-year-old Led Zeppelin when we formed. The Beatles had only been split for seven, the Rolling Stones and the Who were essentially, maybe, 13, 14-years-old. So, there was no band that was around for 40 years. So, it's insane when you say it off the top of your head just like that.”

Def Leppard and Motley Crue kick off their next set of joint North American dates on August 5th in Syracuse, New York at JMA Wireless Dome.

The tracklist to Def Leppard's upcoming Drastic Symphonies is:

“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”
“Have You Ever Needed Someone So Bad” – vinyl and Blu-Ray bonus track