DEF LEPPARD guitarist Vivian Campbell has reunited with his former bandmates in SWEET SAVAGE to record new music for the first time in almost 45 years, SWEET SAVAGE frontman Ray Haller revealed exclusively to Eonmusic‘s Eamon O’Neill.
Speaking backstage at last weekend’s Download festival, Haller confirmed that Campbell has recorded two brand new songs with the Belfast heavy metal pioneers, marking the guitarist’s first studio contribution to SWEET SAVAGE since his departure in 1982.
Campbell, who went on to achieve international success with DIO, WHITESNAKE and DEF LEPPARD, remains close friends with Haller and has become involved in an upcoming archival project celebrating the band’s formative years.
“Universal want to put out all the old stuff, so we’re going to,” Haller told Eonmusic. “We’ve gone through all these tapes and all these recordings from the ’80s. Then Viv and I came up with the idea, ‘Why don’t we do two new ones?’ So we recorded two new songs, and they’re ready to rock and roll.”
The recordings will accompany a collection of previously unreleased and rare SWEET SAVAGE material from the band’s classic era. According to Haller, the project will showcase the quality of the group’s early songwriting and recordings, which helped establish them as one of the most respected bands of the New Wave Of British Heavy Metal movement.
While the new songs had initially been earmarked for release this year, scheduling commitments have pushed the project back. Campbell‘s touring obligations with DEF LEPPARD have left little room for promotion, prompting the band to target an early 2027 release instead.
“We think it would be more advantageous to hold it until the start of next year,” Haller explained. “The two new songs are absolutely amazing. It’s Viv, and it’s the Viv that we know.”
The announcement represents a remarkable full-circle moment for SWEET SAVAGE. Campbell co-founded the Belfast outfit alongside Haller as a teenager, helping to forge a sound that would later influence generations of metal musicians. Although his tenure with the band was brief, his guitar work on early recordings became a defining part of the group’s legacy.
SWEET SAVAGE‘s influence was further cemented when METALLICA recorded a cover of “Killing Time” as the B-side to 1991’s “The Unforgiven” single. Haller has long credited that endorsement with introducing the band to a global audience and helping revive interest in SWEET SAVAGE years after their initial split.
The guitarist’s return comes as SWEET SAVAGE continues to enjoy a resurgence following the release of their acclaimed 2025 album “Bang”, while also preparing a comprehensive retrospective of their early recordings.
For fans of both SWEET SAVAGE and Campbell‘s celebrated career, the prospect of hearing the guitarist reconnect with the band where it all began is set to be one of the most intriguing metal releases of 2027.
Read the interview at Eonmusic.
METALLICA frontman James Hetfield joined SWEET SAVAGE on stage at an August 20, 2008 concert at Marlay Park in Dublin, Ireland (where SWEET SAVAGE supported METALLICA) to perform “Killing Time”.
Campbell was a member of SWEET SAVAGE from 1979 until 1982, when he joined DIO.
Vivian joined SWEET SAVAGE on stage for the first time in 30 years when the band supported THIN LIZZY in February 2011 in Belfast and Dublin to perform the classic track “Killing Time”.
In a 2018 interview with Riccardo Ball of “The Metal Bar”, Campbell stated about METALLICA covering “Killing Time” as the B-side to “The Unforgiven” single (the song was also included on METALLICA‘s “Garage Inc.” covers album): “Yeah, that was incredibly flattering when that happened. I do think that there were very, very strong similarities between SWEET SAVAGE and METALLICA. I formed SWEET SAVAGE with a friend of mine who’s, unfortunately, long since passed away — Trevor Fleming — back when I was 15. And we were in Belfast, Northern Ireland in the ’70s, and it was a very tough environment, but we kind of put our heads down and got into music. And we sound a lot like METALLICA, so in a lot of ways, I’m really not that surprised. But it was tremendous for them to do that. It’s funny when you’re 15 or 16 years of age and you write a riff and you get together with your mates and it becomes a song, and then, 25 years later, you get a royalty check for it. It’s funny how life works sometimes.”
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source blabbermouth.net ’
