Diamond Head came together around June of 1976 when guitarist Brian Tatler came together with drummer Duncan Scott. Both were in school together at the time, and they soon found classmate Sean Harris willing to come on board to provide vocals for the band. They began practicing and gigging, in the process working their way through three different bass players before coming across Collin Kimberley who joined in February of 1978. This lineup became the one that recorded the band’s first material. The band recorded two self-financed demos in 1979, one of which found its way into the hands of Geoff Barton at Sounds, an influential pusher of bands of this ilk at the time.
Diamond Head soon found management with the pairing of Dave Morris and Ian Frazier. Morris invested money and time into trying to secure the band a record deal, while Frazier would drive the band on tour around the UK. Their demos and live shows produced enough goodwill to see them land support slots on two gigs by AC/DC and one with another up and coming band Iron Maiden. Morris and Frazier had several record companies express their interest in signing the band, but by this time two other partners had gotten involved in the band’s affairs – Linda Harris, who was Sean Harris’s mother, and her boyfriend Reg Fellows. These two had begun ‘advising’ Sean, and they both were unable to find a deal that they felt suited the band. This led to Morris and Frazier quitting due to the unrealistic expectations of these two, leaving Harris and Fellows to manage the band alone. Fellows pushed the band down the independent release route as a result, deciding they should record an album quickly and cheaply at a local studio where they had recorded their first single "Shoot Out the Lights". A deal was sorted by Fellows – in return for a week of studio time at no cost to the band, the studio owner took 50 per cent of the bands publishing for the next 15 years. ‘Bonehead play that one!” Once recorded, the album failed to gain a record deal. So the next great decision from Fellows? Let’s release 1000 copies of the album on an independent label (also owned by the same studio owner). The album was packaged in a plain sleeve with no title or track listings, and 250 copies were signed by each band member. Next great decision from the management? That it should be perceived as a 'demo' album, so no fancy sleeve was required, making it very cheap to produce. 1000 copies were pressed and made available to fans at concerts and through mail-order. Nothing in the record stores, which was the lifeblood of bands at the time. The only mail-order advertisement appeared in Sounds and ran for six weeks. Yet another sound decision by the band's management was that they did not pay for the advertisement, and ended up being sued by the magazine.
So, under all of this constant MIS-management, Diamond Head had recorded an album, one that their managers tried to pass off as just a demo and not a real album, but in retrospect has always been regarded as the debut album from the band, the future inspirational opus of “Lightning to the Nations”.
7 songs. A little over 41 minutes. Your average album from a new band who are one who became known as a part of the music movement the New Wave of British Heavy Metal. Except it isn’t. It’s a little better than average. A lot better in fact.
The title track sets us off at the start of the album, a slow moody opening few bars before bursting into the opening, the increase and tempo and Sean Harris’s opening vocal salvo switching on from the start. Duncan Scott’s drumming from the outset is powerful and dominating, driving the rhythm of guitar and bass along nicely. Harris wails into his vocal work, and Brian Tatler riffs along nicely. It is a solid opening to the album. “The Prince” is just so full of amazing riffs and licks and solo pieces from Tatler that it is hard to describe them without just saying ‘listen to the damn song and you’ll hear it!’ The riff to open the song, into the first solo lick, then into the second riff, that monster ‘duh duh duh ddd duh duh duh!’, and the great bassline alongside it from Kimberley that complements it perfectly, and then Harris chimes in with the vocals, and we are off. And as sensational as Tatler is here, Kimberley’s flourishes on the bass guitar are just as magnificent. But Tatler’s solo through the middle of the track is fabulous, and the mixing of the rhythm guitar underneath his lead guitar creates an added atmosphere that works immensely well. Motoring along at that uptempo pace that barely stops to take a breath, “The Prince” is one of the band’s best from the outset of the debut album. Everything about the song screams ‘heavy metal’, and in 1980 must have been incredible to see live.
More riffing follows in “Sucking My Love” while Harris offers some of his best wailing here on this monster 9 minute plus track. And it is true that some songs of this length of this age tended to outstay their welcome, moving as they did between moods which can often create a lull that holds back the enjoyment of the track. That certainly isn't the case here with “Sucking My Love”. The basic rhythm riff of guitar and bass and drum tempo remains similar for most of the track, apart from the middle section breakdown, that then gently builds in intensity again has Tatler’s second solo riff plays out, reminiscent of Michael Schenker’s ability to holds the audience’s attention and of the best UFO songs. Of all of his amazing contributions on this album, this middle section of “Sucking My Love” is arguably Tatler’s best. The song then crashes back to its full power to power through to the end of the song and to close out Side A of the album. Brilliant.
And yet – even more brilliance is to come, with Side B opening with “Am I Evil?”, probably the band’s best known song. And even though that fame comes from another band championing it for the last 40+ years, it is none the less still something to behold in its original form. It is not difficult to understand how it attracted the members of that other band with its power and heaviness. Even just listening to this version of the song today, it is impossible to understand how this album was passed over by record companies of the day. Everything about this track screams the future of heavy metal. That opening drums and guitar hammer, before the solo flourish and then that incredible guitar riff that bounds into the song proper. And the syncopated drum beat. And those lyrics... how can you not sing along with them? Just fantastic. And then Tatler is off once again through the solo section of the middle of the song. And yes, it is hard sometimes to separate the original version from the cover version done by that other band, but I think you can judge how good this song is by the loving version that they do of it as a cover. “Am I Evil?” is a stone cold classic, arguably one of the best heavy metal songs ever written, certainly one of the best guitar tracks of all time.
“Sweet and Innocent” channels the opening title track as the most mainline heavy track on the album, both which are very good songs that create the solid core of the album that the great songs lean upon. This has a great rhythm riff from drums bass and guitar that provides the base of the song, one that swings along in a fun way. This is followed by the heavier and more energetic “It’s Electric”, with another great Tatler riff opening up and terrific vocals from Harris. The hopes and dreams of the band are tied up in the lyrics, and with verse chorus platform it structures together nicely. Another great solo break from Tatler is followed by a short breakdown with just drums and bass as Harris repeats the opening verse, and then the whole band cracks back in to complete the song in style. The album concludes with another song written about the perils and pitfalls of the music business, the riff heavy “Helpless” with the bass laden undertones setting up the drum and guitar highlights that form the basis of the song. The superb breakdown in the middle of the track, first dominated by the bassline before being joined by the drums and guitars again, and finally into the solo section and the fast paced conclusion as Harris arrives to drive home the back end of the song vocally is magnificent. Another example of the kind of genius heavy metal this album holds within its songs. Which, of course, then poses the obvious question:
How the fuck did not one record company listen to this album and think “Holy hell! This is amazing! We are going to make a fortune off this album!” It is beyond my comprehension. Iron Maiden’s debut album is still the top of the tree when it comes to debut albums of this period, and Def Leppard’s showcases the raw attributes of what was to come. And the production on albums by bands like Black Sabbath, Judas Priest and Ozzy Osbourne in 1980 is exceptional. But if you are producing those kinds of albums by those kinds of bands – and they are heavy albums, lets face it - how are you not listening to “Lightning for the Nations” and thinking “Yep, this album will fit in very nicely to this genre of music”. And this is where I think everyone missed a trick. Perhaps the management were asking for too much and labels weren’t willing to offer what they wanted. Perhaps the labels just missed a trick. Sure, the band finally signed a deal, but rather than reproducing this album they created the “Borrowed Time”, including a couple of tracks from this album that they rejigged and re-recorded... and it just wasn’t as good. It's fine (you’ll have to wait a couple of years for that podcast episode sorry!) but it doesn’t hold a candle to this. So perhaps the labels were right? That Diamond Head weren’t a long term proposition? But if this HAD received wide release on a major label, and the fan base had picked up on it, then perhaps their second album would have been more focused and would not have been a half-and-half effort of ‘old’ songs and new ones. I don’t know. None of us know, unless we can traverse the multiverse to find out.
In an alternate universe, Diamond Head the band was taken under the wing of management by Rod Smallwood and Andy Taylor, professionals and go-getters who made sure the band got the best opportunities available, and on the back of their debut album “Lightning to the Nations”, which is considered universally to be the greatest album ever released, go on to an amazing career that spans fifty years and many many more albums that reflect that amazing debut release. Doesn’t that sound more realistic than producing an album that your half arsed managers convince you should be considered just a demo? In fact, perhaps the reality is that it is OUR universe that is the alternate universe, and ours is the ONLY one where this didn’t occur! You know what – that makes a whole lot more sense! Instead, here in our own reality, Diamond Head remain a respected yet undervalued band, and this album has really only gained its following through another band coming along a few years later and covering almost every song on it for their own projects.
For me, as I am assuming is the case for the majority of you listening to this podcast episode, I discovered Diamond Head and this album through the band’s biggest fanboys, Metallica. The first I knew of Diamond Head was from the album notes of Metallica’s 1987 covers EP “Garage Days Re-Revisited", where the opening song on that particular brilliant EP is a cover of Diamond Head’s “Helpless”. About a year later I bought Metallica’s “Creeping Death” 12 inch single, one that had as its B-side the covers of two songs. One was “Blitzkrieg” by the band Blitzkrieg – my first but not last foray into that band – and the other was “Am I Evil?” by Diamond Head. Both of these songs had me asking the obvious question – who the fuck are Diamond Head and why don’t I have any of their albums? Changing that situation was not any easy proposition either. No one in Australia, even the mighty Utopia Records, had any Diamond Head available to purchase. The first Diamond Head songs I actually heard performed by Diamond Head were “It’s Electric” and “Helpless” from the compilation album “New Wave of British Heavy Metal: '79 Revisited” put together by Lars Ulrich and Geoff Barton. For that compilation, these two actually tracked down the missing master tapes of the original recording of “Lightning to the Nations” which had been lost for years. On hearing these songs, it did become one of my missions in life to track down the album. The closest I got for years was a firht or sixth generation cassette recording of the album through customers who came into my place of work in the mid-1990's, though once the file sharing days of the 2000’s started I got a much better digital version. Eventually during covid, with the remastered and re-released vinyl copy of the original tapes, I had my lost sought after physical version of the album.
I guess by this point of the episode you all know how I feel about this album. What does disappoint me about any reaction in the positive to what this album is like is, to some members of the heavy metal community, a red flag to immediately respond “Yeah, but you only like it because Metallica play all their songs!” And, that is absolutely true. Without Metallica, who is to say I personally would have discovered this album? Chances are I would have, given the other albums and bands I have found from that era of music simply because it is a breeding pond of so much of the music that I now enjoy, but perhaps I wouldn’t have. But I will say this: as much as I love the Metallica version’s of “Am I Evil?”, “Helpless”, “It’s Electric”, “The Prince” and “Sucking My Love” - I enjoy Diamond Head’s original versions at least as much, and in some instances more. And I can’t help listening to this album and imagining it when it was released. And listening to it and hearing all of the bands that it inspired along the way. If not for Diamond Head, would Metallica be anywhere near as good as they are? Or Megadeth? Or any of the other great thrash bands in particular that this album inspired?
So yes, I have had this album out again over the past week or so. And it still sounds as great as the first time I heard it. Better actually. It is one of those albums that still gets better every time I put it on my stereo in the Metal Cavern. And over in one of those other parallel universes, I have seen Diamond Head live a dozen times, and still marvel that a band that has been around for 45 years is still out there, and that their debut album is still one of the best albums I’ve ever listened to.
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