Def Leppard-Hysteria (Classic Albums) (Warner Vision) (2002) |
|
Def Leppard-Hysteria (Classic Albums) (Warner Vision) (2002) |
|
|
| BUY IT |
| General | Extras | ||
| Category | Documentary |
Main Menu Audio Featurette-Initial Recordings Of 'Animal' Featurette-Rick Gets Hysterical Featurette-'Hysteria' (Acoustic) Featurette-Drumming - Return To The Status Quo Featurette-The Album According To Joe Featurette-Sugar Stripped Down Featurette-'Pour Some Sugar On Me' (Acoustic) Featurette-Guitars, Guitars, Guitars Featurette-Windmill II and the Gods of War Featurette-Mutt's Vocals In The Mix Featurette-The Album Is Finally Released |
|
| Rating |
|
||
| Year Of Production | 2002 | ||
| Running Time | 99:04 | ||
| RSDL / Flipper | No/No | Cast & Crew | |
| Start Up | Menu | ||
| Region Coding | 1,2,3,4,5,6 | Directed By | Matthew Longfellow |
|
Studio
Distributor |
 Warner Vision |
Starring |
Def Leppard Joe Elliott Rick Allen Phil Collen Rick Savage Steven Clark |
| Case | Click | ||
| RPI | $39.95 | Music | Def Leppard |
| Video | Audio | ||
| Pan & Scan/Full Frame | None | English Dolby Digital 2.0 (224Kb/s) | |
| Widescreen Aspect Ratio | 1.78:1 | ||
| 16x9 Enhancement |
 |
||
| Video Format | 576i (PAL) | ||
| Original Aspect Ratio | 1.78:1 | Miscellaneous | |
| Jacket Pictures | No | ||
| Subtitles |
German Spanish Italian Dutch French Portuguese |
Smoking | No |
| Annoying Product Placement | No | ||
| Action In or After Credits | No | ||
First things first. No complete story of the pinnacle of Def Leppard's success that was Hysteria can start without first acknowledging its predecessor, Pyromania. Released in 1983 it became a true classic album in its own right with such hits as Foolin', Rock of Ages and Photograph. Produced by Robert John "Mutt" Lange (also known as the Sixth Leppard), it set the style and sound that would become synonymous with Def Leppard: Solid guitar work, impossibly catchy harmonic choruses, fist pumping anthems and in the end just great fun rock and roll. This was the summer album in 1983 and is fondly remembered as about 50% of the soundtrack to this reviewer's high school years. An important album, perhaps a great album. To be bettered? Perhaps. But it wouldn't be overnight and it sure as hell wouldn't be easy.
After their huge success with the Pyromania album in the US (and absolutely nil success with the same album in the UK), Def Leppard set out to write and record their follow-up. Setting up in Dublin, they set about writing for what would become Hysteria. Not much was accomplished, though, as the band instead set about drinking themselves into a stupor every time they attempted to actually write some songs. Still, a few ideas were set and recorded onto then state-of-the-art Fostex 4 channel tape recorders that the band bought for each member. By the time it came to actually recording, things were not as in place as the band would have liked. Their preferred producer, "Mutt" Lange, who had served them on the Pyromania album was not available so the band tried several producers including accomplished songwriter and producer Jim Steinman whose work included writing and co-producing Meatloaf's classic album Bat Out of Hell along with writing for Bonnie Tyler and producing for the variant likes of Air Supply and The Sisters of Mercy. It didn't work...it really really didn't work, and the band decided to go with someone else as producer. Jim Steinman would later go on to say about Def Leppard "They make Spinal Tap look like the Julliard String Quartet". And the hard times for the band continued with drummer Rick Allen suffering horrific injuries in a car crash that saw him lose his left arm. It would be the death knell of any other drummer from any other band, but not Rick Allen, and after recovering from the accident he began to experiment with returning to the drum kit. Learning of Rick Allen's valiant attempt to continue drumming, John "Mutt" Lange found time to work with the band and things seemed to be on the right track. They couldn't have known just how right things would get.
What the band recorded in the years 1984 to 1987 would eventually become one of the most popular albums in history with no less than 7 major hits attributed to it. The songs spanned styles and genres and was accepted both by pop fans and metalheads. Hysteria was the ultimate hybrid music project with the band and producer covering almost every niche imaginable including the ballad, the rock anthem and even rap (comparisons are drawn with Queen's We Will Rock You and Def Leppard's Pour Some Sugar on Me with both having a distinctive rap style).
This DVD serves as a lasting document of the trials and tribulations, hard work and heartbreaks that marked the creation of the defining album of the late 80s. Although this DVD presents the original Classic Albums: Hysteria in its entirety, the bonus material should almost be classed as a whole Part II of the original with just as much relevant detail revealed. Even the total running time for the bonus material is almost exactly the same as the main feature, so in effect you are really getting two episodes for the price of one. Perhaps one niggling thing is the omission of any complete tracks or video clips from the band's featured album. What we do get are 2 acoustic versions of the album's key singles, these being the title track Hysteria and the worldwide smash Pour Some Sugar on Me which are played by lead vocalist Joe Elliot and the band's main guitarist Phil Collen. These tracks are a raw and stripped down presentation of what the band and producer created and what they may have sounded like before going into the recording studio. Another missing thing from the whole presentation is the lack of interview time with the album's producer, John "Mutt" Lange. There are a couple of snippets with him giving some limited comment, but these seem to be older archived footage gathered independently of this documentary. One nice feature of this documentary is the titling of all the interviewees during the main feature. Whenever a person is on-screen giving comment, their name and relation to the Hysteria project are listed on-screen which is handy when you are viewing talking heads whose names you may be familiar with but whose faces ring no bells whatsoever. A very handy feature that unfortunately doesn't carry over to the bonus section, although by the time you get to it you should have become accustomed to the various contributors.
Love them or hate them, someone you know has a copy of Hysteria laying around somewhere. It sold over 17 million copies worldwide to happy fans everywhere. This reviewer was of course one of them and over 15 years later, this reviewer is still a very happy customer. If you have any interest in either the band or on how one of the most listened to albums of the 80s came about, then this is a must see. If you are a real Def Leppard fan, then don't even think about buying this DVD, just do it! Recommended for those interested in rock music history and fans of the band.
The quality of the video transfer on this DVD is quite good and very watchable although the programme's content would be just as interesting even with an inferior transfer. Thankfully, no such dilemma confronts us here.
This feature, produced for television, is presented in what may very well be its original widescreen ratio of 1.78:1 and is 16x9 enhanced.
There are several types of footage used in this feature. In the main, the predominant footage is the interviews recorded directly for this feature. This footage is very clean with the level of sharpness being quite clear and shadow detail never lacking. Although recorded on videotape, committed to film and intended for broadcast, low level noise is never a problem.
Colour is very natural and clean at all times with no problems of note.
There are no MPEG artefacts of note seen during the feature and the bonus materials with a reasonably clear image throughout. The only film artefacts seen are during the many video clips snippets where a fair amount of grain can also be seen. Otherwise, the level of grain seen during the main feature and in the Bonus Material is quite acceptable. There is some very slight aliasing at 3:58 and 4:43, although this is not major and does not detract from the feature. There is some edge enhancement which can be highlighted at 4:25, although this is an example only as this irritating artefact is not pervasive during this feature.
There are several subtitle options available for viewers that may not use English as their primary language but are interested in the content of this title.
This disc proclaims itself to be dual layered but careful checking reveals otherwise. This disc is single layered.
| Sharpness |   |
| Shadow Detail | |
| Colour | |
| Grain/Pixelization | |
| Film-To-Video Artefacts | |
| Film Artefacts | |
| Overall | |
Of necessity, there is only one audio track presented here, that being English Dolby Digital 2.0 surround-encoded.
This being a documentary consisting of interviews with various people concerned with the production of an album, dialogue would have to have been of primary concern to the feature's producers. Thankfully, there are no issues with the dialogue and everyone is understandable throughout the feature even though there there are several UK accents to be heard.
Audio sync is spot-on throughout this title with the small exception of the video from the band's rejected video clip for Pour Some Sugar on Me (19:09 during the Bonus Material section) which has the audio sync out a fair bit.
As this is a documentary covering the genesis of the album Hysteria by the band Def Leppard, almost all the music heard during the feature is from the featured album. There is no score or background music as such other than the theme to the Classic Albums series during the main titles.
There is limited atmospheric surround contribution with this feature. Also, the subwoofer activity is, as with the surrounds, limited to a subservient role as would be expected with a title such as this and as such they never draw undue attention to themselves.
| Dialogue | |
| Audio Sync | |
| Clicks/Pops/Dropouts | |
| Surround Channel Use | |
| Subwoofer | |
| Overall | |
The Chapter Selection menu is quite plain with just the titles of the 6 chapters of the main feature listed. These 6 chapters are:
The Subtitles menu offers the various options in their native language including:
NOTE: To view non-R4 releases, your equipment needs to be multi-zone compatible and usually also NTSC compatible.
The video is very good with the only artefacts of note occurring during archive footage.
The audio is very good with dialogue quality spot-on throughout.
The extras are quite good with the Bonus Material equating to almost a second Classic Albums episode.
| Video | |
| Audio | |
| Extras | |
| Plot | |
| Overall | |
| Review Equipment | |
| DVD | Panasonic A300-MU, using S-Video output |
| Display | Hitachi CP-L750W LCD Projector. Calibrated with Video Essentials. |
| Audio Decoder | Built in to DVD player. Calibrated with Video Essentials. |
| Amplification | Yamaha RX-V2090 |
| Speakers | VAF DC-X fronts; VAF DC-6 center; VAF DC-2 rears; LFE-07subwoofer (80W X 2) |