Diamond Head – Diamond Head

[nyrating]

2nd May 2016 Reinier de Vries Album Reviews 0

It can be a curse that your debut album is so strong that it is hard to exceed it. ‘Lightning To the Nations’ (1980) was such a strong release. Back then a lot of people thought that Diamond Head would be the next Led Zeppelin. Strong riffs, good songs and a great singer, Sean Harris. The next release was not bad either, but didn’t make it happen for the band. Their succes didn’t happen.

A lot of metal fans know the band from their song “Am I Evil”, covered by Metallica on the ‘Creeping Death’ EP. Also songs like “Helpless”, “The Prince” and “It’s Electric” were covered by Metallica. If you want to know the rest of this bands history, you better check it out yourself.

I think this is the best album since their debut, it sounds like the logical predecessor of that album. A kind of ‘Lightning To the Nations 2.0’, same style, modern sound. With Rasmus Bom Andersen they found a new vocalist that could be the younger brother of Sean Harris. He sounds a lot like him and the singing lines look a lot like the ones on the debut. Another great point is that Brian Tatler wrote strong songs with strong riffs. Sure, some riffs don’t sound new, but who cares. The songs have a lot of variety and sound really old school melodic hardrock/metal. Influences of Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, Judas Priest and Black Sabbath or is it just Diamond Head can be found back on this album. With the song “Silence” the band wrote a track that has a lot in common with “Kashmir” of Led Zeppelin and that immediately makes it one of my favorites.

An unexpected strong come back of this band, if NWOBHM is your thing, check them out!

Tracklist:

01. Bones
02. Shout At the Devil
03. Set My Soul On Fire
04. See You Rise
05. All the Reasons You Live
06. Wizard Sleeve
07. Our Time Is Now
08. Speed
09. Blood On My Hands
10. Diamonds
11. Silence

Playing time: 48:00

Release date: 22 April 2016

Label: Dissonance Productions

Website: www.diamond-head.net

About Reinier de Vries 188 Articles

Once a metal head, always a metalhead. My parents thought it would only be a period, but they were wrong. I quit to explain the beauty of metal music to others that are not into metal, because it is something you can't tell in words... It is like explaining to a teetotaller why a cold beer is so nice on a hot day... I started with bands like Accept, Metal Church, Iron Maiden and Metallica in the eighties and I think I will still listen to them when I'm stone deaf and old...