name, and that modus operandi holds true for most of the album. Rick Allen's crack-shot drumming, the thick layers of guitars and the enveloping echo of Lange's artfully busy mix more than cover up the street-corner rhyming of these tales of Tarzan sexuality and macho party exploits. But this young band (the average age is twenty-one) demonstrates surprising sophistication as it manipulates old heavy-metal tricks into tight, invigorating songs while holding epic pretensions in check. Both "Comin' under Fire" and "Photograph" combine the kaboom of AC/DC with slick choruses and brassy vocal harmonies that sound like a gassed-up Boston. Def Leppard may not be highly original, but they mean what they play, and Pyromania puts some much-needed fire back on the radio. (RS 392)

DAVID FRICKE