Def Leppard's Diamond Star Halos album has been voted the best of 2022 in Classic Rock magazine's annual end-of-year writers poll. The full countdown, featuring the 50 best albums of the year, is featured in the new issue of Classic Rock, which is out now.
Diamond Star Halos – described in Classic Rock's review as "comfortably the best album by this line-up" – was released in May, ahead of the band's money-spinning Stadium Tour with Motley Crue. The album hit the Top 10 in both the US and the UK, and repeated the feat in Germany, Finland and Australia.
"What we’ve delivered is the ultimate album for who we are now,” Joe Elliott told Classic Rock earlier this year. "We haven’t had a buzz like this for ages. And the reason we’re so confident about this record is that the people closest to the band are confident in us."
"Most bands run out of ideas,” added guitarist Phil Collen. “There’s this phrase: ‘ageing out’. Not literally, but they lose the fire. That’s not us. We have firepower!"
Runners up in the Classic Rock writer's poll were Ghost's Impera, Porcupine Tree's Closure/Continuation, Clutch's Sunrise On Slaughter Beach and Rock Believer by Scorpions.
You can read the full 2022 Top 50 in the latest issue of Classic Rock. It's our traditional end of year review, featuring interviews with many of the musicians behind our Albums Of The Year, and also comes with a 2023 wall calendar, some rockin' wrapping paper, and a classic rock activity book.
