Journey vs. Def Leppard. Who is better?

I agree that the later Def Lep songs are definitely along the lines of Poison and such, but their earlier stuff (ie High & Dry) is much better than pretty much everything Journey ever did. Don't get me wrong, Journey is a great band, but they are too much pop and not enough rock, and their new singer sucks.

In my comparison, I do make the distinction between comparing early Journey to early Def Leppard and later Journey to later Def Leppard. Early Def Leppard is better, yet they seem like a cross between Loverboy and a rather mild version of Iron Maiden (one of the best metal groups ever). Early Journey, up to their Departure album, seems to have more serious lyrics in their songs. Wheel In The Sky is a very serious song about the depressing feeling of being separated from your loved ones and not being able to do a thing about it.

Now moving towards the later era, Journey seemed to take on a more "Teeny Bopper" style of music. Frontiers was their most teen oriented album yet. Only The Young (which was originally slated to be released on Frontiers until the label's A&R guy yanked it) is proof of that. So with later Journey, you have a shift of more adult themes into more teen oriented themes. And yes, I fully agree that Def Leppard became more of a glam rock hair band with the release of Pyromania and further cemented that reputation with Hysteria.

Of course, Journey came from being a 70s classic rock band and Gregg Rollie was every bit as much as a star with the band before Steve Perry joined. But I will admit that I am biased towards that 70s sound and Steve Perry's voice is very dynamic without resorting to scratchiness. And I feel that Infinity and Evolution are their best works.

And yes, their new singer does not cut it.