The moment that I began to watch this DVD I was brought back to my youth as I remembered nights with friends as we watched either "Friday Night Videos" or MTV. In my circle, "Friday Night Videos" was the way to go since not everyone had the famous music video channel back then. The videos of Def Leppard were staple rotations on this and similar programs and while not as unique as Duran Duran or ZZ Top's offerings they still had an inherent coolness factor to them. I loved seeing this Heavy Rock band being a regular feature on these programs as they allowed us to see such things in an influential time for music. Time has caused me to lose memory of the other shows that did this for bands and there were a few of them trust me on that. During this time in Music History the use of videos really helped the genre and this was especially the case on Heavy Rock and Metal bands. These were groups that focused and held such a need for the visual end of things that there were always a few videos for each album that was released. Even new bands were assured of having some videos accompany their album and soon after they would make their way to the networks. This DVD comes to us as a companion release to their CD Anthology also entitled Rock Of Ages; this is a suitable title to name a hits piece after one of the groups biggest songs. While this is not the entire collection of 39 existing video films that I believe the band has in their archives, this single DVD gives you an almost song for song version to enjoy visually after you have absorbed the double CD. Those that seek the other videos the group has can look up their Historia/In The Round or Visualize: Video Archive for those.
In the recent years I have stopped following Def Leppard as the music changed far too much for my liking. However, given my "old school" or "traditionalist" stand on stuff from the 80's I view the video films from an album like Pyromania with respect and a little bit of history. It was a stellar album that broke records all around, and its videos were very well received by pretty much everyone. In that I enjoyed more of this DVD than I expected. Combined with the films from the Hysteria album I was satisfied with the release. I feel that this might be more for collectors since some of this stuff has been available elsewhere but then again it is still reasonably priced so those who must adventure deeper can still grab it and not feel set back all that much.
Song Listing
1. Pour Some Sugar On Me
2. Photograph
3. Love Bites
4. Let's Get Rocked
5. Two Steps Behind
6. Animal
7. Foolin'
8. Rocket
9. When Love And Hate Collide
10. Armageddon It
11. Have You Ever Needed Someone So Bad
12. Rock Of Ages
13. Hysteria
14. Brigin' On The Heartbreak
15. Promises
16. Women
17. Slang
18. Work It Out
19. Now
20. Band Commentary – bonus
21. "No Matter What" (rehearsal 2005) – bonus
22. Personal Playlist - bonus
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