Excellent!

On the recent ‘Viva Hysteria DVD’, Joe Elliott rightly claims that Ded Flatbird are the world’s best Def Leppard tribute band. If that’s true, then the band that pays the biggest homage to Sheffield’s finest must surely be Sweden’s Grand Design. First appearing in 2009 with the excellent ‘Time Elevation’, an album described by yours truly within these very pages as sounding like it could have been released between ‘Pyromania’ and ‘Hysteria’, I also used the word “plagiarism” as the sound may have been a little too close to DL for some, but I was very impressed nonetheless.  Sophomore release ‘Idolizer’ surfaced in 2011 and after an almost Leppard-ish three year wait, the next instalment has arrived.

A line-up shuffle doesn’t seem to have interrupted the “Grand Design” of main-man vocalist, producer and guiding light Pelle Saether, who is accompanied by long-term guitarist Dennis Vestman, while the axe-slinger who has guested on both previous albums, Janne Stark (Overdrive, Locomotive Breath) has joined the band permanently, also in comes bassist Mats Vassfjord (Chris Laney Band) and drummer Peter Hermansson (Talisman, John Norum, 220 Volt). Still very much in evidence is the huge drum sound, the eighties sounding guitars, the amazing vocal harmonies that could have quite easily come from Rick Savage, Phil Collen and Vivian Campbell and most of all the enormously impressive Mutt Lange-style production. However the songs contained within ‘Thrill Of The Night’ are possibly the best GD have delivered to date, as while they are still very much Leppard influenced, they don’t obviously ape any song in particular as much as those on the debut did, with Saether’s quirkiness manifesting itself in many of the song-title and lyrics.

Highlights come thick and fast; the thumping ‘U Got Me Good’ gets things off to a rousing start, ‘Rawk ‘N Roll Heart Attack’ benefits from an insanely catchy groove, while undoubted album highlight ‘The Rush Is Gone’ is a slower dramatic number that manages to combine the best elements of ‘Too Late For Love’ and ‘Hysteria’. ‘Outta 10’ is a pulsating Hard Rocker with a catchy chorus whereas ‘When The Greatest Love Of All Kicks In’ is an epic power-ballad that’s more ‘Have You Ever Needed Someone So Bad’ than ‘Love Bites’. Eclipse front-man and all-round song-writing genius Erik Martensson has been drafted in to contribute to the mid-tempo ‘You’re The Only One’ and the commercial Rocker ‘Who’s Gonna Rawk You Tonite’, while ‘Get Up N’ Love Someone’ and the title track are also highly anthemic numbers.

If Airbourne can carve out a successful career as an AC/DC copycat, then I don’t see why Grand Design can’t receive similar plaudits. Excellent!

Ant Heeks