Def Leppard announce new album Diamond Star Halos and release single Kick

With “Diamond Star Halos”, the hard rock band from Sheffield will release their twelfth album on May 27th, 2022. The first release – “Kick” – can be heard from Thursday (March 17th).

The last release of the group around singer Joe Elliott was seven years ago: The album named after the band “Def Leppard” – derived from the original “Deaf Leopard” – ended up in the top ten of the US Billboard 200.

Two years, three countries: The new album was created without any pressure

The Hall of Famers spent two years working on “Diamond Star Halos” in different places: while Elliott was recording from Ireland, bassist Rick Savage was in England and Rick Allen, Phil Collen and Vivian Campbell were helming theirs Share from the US.

Among other things, the record is intended to reflect the influences of David Bowie, which accompanied the band at the beginning of their career: At their first concert in front of friends in 1977, the band played a Bowie cover. Now two of their new tracks are accompanied by Bowie’s pianist Mike Garson. The new work is also inspired by the British rock bands T. Rex and Mott The Hoople, whose influences have also shaped the band for a long time.

Despite strokes of fate, Def Leppard never let themselves be deterred

However, the rock band is not only known for their top titles, but also for the blows of fate that befell several members: ex-guitarist Steve Clark, for example, died of an overdose. Drummer Allen lost his left arm as a result of a car accident, which in his case did not mean the end of his music career: Since then he has been using a drum kit co-developed by NASA that can be operated with just one arm but both legs.

This special way of playing can be heard again on “Diamond Star Halos”. There is also a guest appearance from bluegrass country singer Alison Krauss accompanying tracks “This Guitar” and “Lifeless.”

The record will be available as a deluxe edition, double vinyl LP and digitally. In addition, the first music video of the album will be released shortly and a tour is also planned. Unfortunately, this will not take the musicians to Germany this year.

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