Swedish act heavily influenced by Def Leppard.

“Plagiarism: The act or an instance of taking the thoughts, writings, inventions of another as one’s own.” It could be said that this applies to this here album, so is the content within. Put simply, this sounds like Def Leppard. Very much so. And you know what? It’s absolutely brilliant!

It sounds like this album could have been released between ‘Pyromania’ and ‘Hysteria’, the sort of sound that Sheffield’s finest have slightly moved away from. And not just the music, it’s the production as well. Move over Mutt Lange, this is the real deal. Everything is here, the wall of sound guitars, the big booming drums, and the multi-part harmonies too! But although this is very Def Leppard sounding, Grand Design also have a little quirkiness about them that reminds me of their fellow Swedes House Of Shakira, so it’s not just a complete soundalike, in the way that, for instance, Airbourne sound like AC/DC.

Mainman Palle Saether (Vocals, Production, Composition) has created a great album here, with very catchy songs, just check out the likes of ‘Love Sensation’, ‘Air It Out’, ‘Piece Of The Action’ (no, not the Sweet cover!) and ‘Sad Sound Of Goodbye’. And the guitar work of Peter Ledin and Dennis Vestman is worthy of a mention, maybe not in the same league of Messrs. Collen and Clark (or Campbell I suppose), but very good nonetheless.

Not entirely original then, but if you like Def Leppard, and you don’t mind somebody else doing Def Leppard, you don’t wanna miss this.

Ant Heeks