The album is the follow-up to the band's 1983 breakthrough "Pyromania". "Hysteria"s creation took over three years and was plagued by delays, including the aftermath of drummer Rick Allen’s accident that cost him his left arm on 31 December 1984. Subsequent to the album's release, Def Leppard published a book entitled "Animal Instinct: The Def Leppard Story", written by "Rolling Stone" magazine senior editor David Fricke, on the three-year recording process of "Hysteria" and the tough times the band endured through the mid-1980s.