Between the releases of Retro Active and Slang, Def Leppard endured hardships including guitarist Phil Collen's divorce from actress Jacqueline Collen, bassist Rick Savage's battle with Bell's Palsy and the death of his father, and the arrests of both drummer Rick Allen and lead singer Joe Elliott for spousal abuse and assault, respectively. Though the band says Adrenalize was recorded during a bleaker time, the absence of Mutt Lange (for the first time on a Def Leppard record since 1981) made it possible for the band to show what they were really feeling. Says Joe Elliott, "There was a period with Mutt where if you came out with anything slightly negative, it was 'Fuck it!' and it was gone!" Continues Phil Collen, "We've all got personal things that have happened during the recording of Slang, and we've just ploughed on and some of it has come out on the record."
Doing without the services of Mutt Lange, the band changed another habit by recording together as a band, in a townhouse in Marbella, Spain. Slang would feature less production in favour of a more organic sound, catalysed by drummer Rick Allen's reversion to a semi-acoustic kit. "We'd got so sick of recording the old way. We didn't want to do it any more. We wanted the music to be more personalised and let the character of the individuals to come out," explains Rick Savage.
