DIAMOND HEAD – Diamond Head (2016)

One of the most influential metal bands of all time, English act DIAMOND HEAD will release its first album of new material in eight years on March 11. Titled “Diamond Head“, the disc features an exciting new talent in singer Rasmus Bom Andersen.
In 2014, Diamond Head invited Danish-born Andersen to join the band. Together they completed a European tour, which included appearances at Hard Rock Hell and Headbangers Open Air in Germany. The spark of creativity led the band to start working on this new album.

Diamond Head are probably most famous worldwide for their influence on Metallica. Metallica openly acknowledge them as an important early influence and have covered Diamond Head songs at gigs and recorded many, appeared in their first album Kill ‘Em All and later in the EP The $5.98 EP: Garage Days Re-Revisited.
Diamond Head founder member Brian Tatler (guitars) joined members of Metallica, Megadeth, Anthrax and more at the U.K.’s Sonisphere festival in 2011, performing Diamond Head’s classic song “Am I Evil?”

Lars Ulrich addressed the crowd, saying: “If it wasn’t for Brian Tatler, there’s a pretty good fucking chance none of us would be here tonight. Would you give it up for Brian Tatler one more time?”
Tatler said: “It was great. A nod towards Diamond Head to say Respect, you’re an important band. You might not have sold millions of records, but you’re an influential band. And it’s nice to be influential.”
Brian continued: “But equally, if it wasn’t for Metallica, then Diamond Head would not have had this second wind.”

And this second wind is pretty juicy.
All songs in “Diamond Head”, the new album, are pure classic material. Back in the day this stuff was called New Wave Of British Heavy Metal, but now it’s simply known as Classic Rock.
Catch it clearly: “Diamond Head” sound is hard rock, clean, melodic and with some keyboards thrown in. New vocalist Rasmus Bom Andersen is a great find, as this young guy sings with the blood of legendary frontman like Biff Byford or Bernie Shaw (Praying Mantis).

Right from the insistent riffing of opening track ‘Bones’ it sounds like the classic era of the band… oh yeah, this is ’80s stuff with an updated sound. The riff and arrangement in this song wouldn’t sound out of place on the legendary ‘White Album’ that started their career, and has some Scorpions on it as well.
‘Shout at the Devil’ comes out like a lighter version of Judas Priest, the bass-pumped midtempo ‘Set My Soul On Fire’ is terrific somehow reminding early Magnum, while ‘See You Rise’ has that riffage that would make UFO founder members proud.

With a keyboard / synth background, ‘All the Reasons You Live’ is melodic hard rock, catchy and meaty, ‘Wizard Sleeve’ has a R N’ R vibe similar to Fastway, ‘Speed’ is not so fast (in fact brings to mind Saxon), then you have hints of Riot (Narita years) in the solid ‘Blood on My Hands’.
Another favorite of mine is ‘Diamonds’, a melodic hard rocker blending some Bronz with, again, Fastway, then there are even nods to Canterbury with the epic Zeppelin-esque ‘Silence’, eastern elements and all.

It ain’t easy being Diamond Head. It never was. There was a brief window when they were the absolute bleeding edge of the then-burgeoning NWOBHM sound, but the band took so many wrong turns that by the time heavy metal landed as a global cultural force in ’80s, they were already lost in the weeds of somewhere.

Including in this new album 2016 a track called ‘Our Time Is Now’ may be a bit ironic but thirty years on… why not? This record sounds much more authentic than most the major hard rock acts comeback, and has one thing or two to teach to novel bands.
“Diamond Head” is true early ’80s British Hard Rock re-capturing the magic of the era but delivered with an updated, fresh production.
Highly Recommended.

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

Brian Tatler – Guitars
Rasmus Bom Andersen – Vocals
Karl Wilcox – Drums
Eddie Moohan – Bass
Andy Abberley – Guitars

PRE ORDER:
www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B01C8PU2ZM
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