Def Leppard are making it clear that their next studio album is not going to be business as usual. In a new interview with France’s Oüi FM, Joe Elliott said the band’s upcoming record will include “the fastest song we’ve ever done” as well as “the most ridiculously over-the-top, pretentious, massive, big, kind of bombastic song that we’ve ever written.” He added that the album is still in progress and is expected to arrive in early 2027.
Elliott said the band has been working on the record throughout its Vegas residency and tour schedule, sometimes recording in unusual places to keep the process moving. “We were actually recording parts of it in Vegas on days off,” he explained, saying the group set up in the basement of the casino and continued recording and mixing there. He also said the band now has about 18 songs, enough for “nearly two albums,” though only 10 or 11 tracks will make the final cut.
That mix of excess and variety is exactly what Elliott says the band wants. He described the project as “very varied”, “very eclectic”, and something that might “surprise a lot of people.” According to him, the album is not headed in one direction at all: “It’s 10 different directions. And we love being able to do that.”
The first piece of that puzzle is “Rejoice,” the lead-off track from the new album. Def Leppard released the song in late January ahead of their Def Leppard: Live at Caesars Palace residency, which ran through February 28, 2026. Elliott said he wanted the song to carry a positive message and described it as an uplifting and mid-tempo track built around optimism rather than flash.
Rick Savage has also been teasing just how far along the band is. Earlier this year, he said Def Leppard already had enough material to stretch “through to the end of the decade pretty much,” and added that if the band had to release the album immediately, it could. The reason it is not out yet, he said, is the final stretch: “the last 20% takes 80% of the time to get it right.”
The timing matters because Diamond Star Halos arrived in 2022, and Def Leppard have since kept the momentum going with new singles and special releases. Blabbermouth noted that the band’s latest full-length studio album was followed by Drastic Symphonies in 2023, while the new material now being assembled appears to push further into contrast — from the band’s fastest song to its biggest, most theatrical one.
For a band that has already spent decades balancing polish, melody, and arena-sized hooks, this new chapter sounds unusually wide-open. If Elliott is right, Def Leppard’s next album will not just sound different from track to track — it may feel like the band deliberately challenged itself to see how far it could stretch without losing its identity.
