Metallica's citing of them as an influence however, coupled with equal praise from rival band Megadeth, meant Diamond Head were not forgotten, and in 1991 they reformed just long enough to release their fourth proper album. Heading back out on the road they played alongside the new young guns who had quoted them as influences, but oh! Ten years is a long time in rock and/or roll, and unfortunately their exended stay away from the scene meant that the new fans who were getting into Metallica thought that Diamond Head were playing cover songs by their heroes, while in fact the reverse was true. Despite this setback, DH persevered and in 1993 they put out their fourth album, "Death and progress".
Death and progress --- Diamond Head --- 1993 (Castle Music)
Due to the contacts they had made on the road over the years, and also the fact that they were earning such plaudits from the emerging new stars of the metal scene, Harris and Tatler were able to call on the services of Black Sabbath legend Tony Iommi as well as Megadeth's Dave Mustaine to help out with their new album. Tony plays on, and helped write, the opening track while Mustaine plays guitar on "Truckin'".
And it's "Starcrossed (Lovers of the night)" that gets us going, with a soft, luxuriant, laidback guitar with an unmistakable Sabbath feel to it. No surprise then when it suddenly explodes into life and the master cranks out the riffs with the ease of a professional of over twenty years. The song is much heavier, a return to the sound Diamond Head pursued on their debut and second album, with hard, chugging guitar and Harris sounding happy to be singing again. Great solo of course, as you would expect. In the last minute it really ramps up the tempo, Harris bellowing out the vocal as it cannons along. "Truckin'" is a faster song from the start, just as heavy but in a different way, with fine fretwork from Dave Mustaine, and a somewhat political/ecological lyric. Nice bluesy guitar solo in the midsection as Mustaine shows he can do more than just shred.
In four albums so far we haven't yet really had a ballad, unless you count the extended blues ending to "Don't you ever leave me", and this isn't one either, though it is a slower song than they have up to now played. "Calling your name (The light)" is a heavy cruncher with definite balladic elements, but I couldn't in fairness call it a love song. Superb soaring solo from Tatler, and a real dramatic and passionate feel to the song. This album is also their longest to date in terms of tracks, with ten in all, but the shortest in terms of song lengths, with only half of those over four minutes and none over five. "I can't help myself" has a boogie, swinging rhythm to it, reminscent of the best of Led Zep, while "Paradise" gets the tempo high again with a fast headshaker that nods back to their debut while yet retaining enough commercial appeal to have made it a decent candidate for a single, were any released from this album. Touch of Guns'n'Roses there too, if you listen.
"Dust" has a certain anthemic quality, another fast rocker with some great guitar work and fast percussion, and a slightly progressive twist to the last minute or so, then a nice introspective guitar opens "Run" with some really solid vocal harmonies. It of course doesn't stay low-key for long, as Tatler's guitar winds up and fires off, and the song becomes a hard cruncher with kind of AOR overtones; would maybe have been another good choice for a single. Very catchy. There's a pounding drum and droning keyboard intro then to "Wild on the streets", which rocks along once it gets going, a real air-guitar song. Great dual solo (dualo?) from the keys and Tatler's axe --- wish I knew who was playing those keyboards. Everything slows down then in a track you would think Iommi had had a hand in ---- maybe he did, though it's uncredited if so --- as it has a real dark Sabbath feel. "Damnation Street" has a thick, insistent bass and chunky guitar with a wailed vocal from Sean Harris, then a guitar fading in takes us to the closer, "Home", another quite Zep song, reminiscent in places of "Whole lotta love", with a great beat and some soaring guitar.
TRACKLISTING
1. Starcrossed (Lovers of the night)
2. Truckin'
3. Calling your name (The light)
4. I can't help myself
5. Paradise
6. Dust
7. Run
8. Wild on the streets
9. Damnation Street
10. Home
This isn't a bad album at all; maybe not the sort of thing you expect when a band comes back after a decade away. I mean, they've had a long time to get their sound sorted, and write new material. So does it knock my socks off? Not quite, but it's not a disappointment either. I just think that those who were into Diamond Head before they broke up would probably be happy with this, while those who didn't know of them might think it was a good album certainly, but wonder what all the fuss was about? The Second Coming of Diamond Head? Ah, not quite.
The band however did themselves no favours when they appeared at Milton Keynes in support of Metallica and Megadeth that year. Harris came out on stage dressed as Death, and later confirmed this was to make the comment that the NWOBHM was dead. Well, considering it was this movement that gave them --- and a lot of other new bands --- their start, this seems to be either a very smug or ungrateful thing to say. It obviously didn't go down well with the fans, either their own or those of either of the thrash giants, and the set they played was poor, this mostly down to lack of rehearsal time as well as Tatler being unwell. The following year they split for the second time, and this time the hiatus would last six years.
As the new millennium arrived Diamond Head came back for a third shot at fame. However creative differences between Harris and the rest of the band over the next album's direction, and the fact that he wanted it to be marketed unattached to the Diamond Head name, as a totally new band (has he any idea about the power of a fanbase, this guy?) led to the singer's departure from the band soon after. He was replaced by Nick Tart in 2003, and the band released their fifth album, and the first one without Harris, two years later. Sadly I don't have the time to review that, as I want to end on their so-far-last album, but it's widely regarded as a departure in style from their original albums and seems to be set out as some sort of basic concept album.
After more extensive touring, including a tribute to the thirtieth anniversary of the NWOBHM, perhaps by way of a sort of apology for Sean Harris's ill-thought-out stunt in 1993, Diamond Head released their fifth album, which so far has been the last one.
What's in your head? --- Diamond Head --- 2007 (Cargo)
Ah, the hands have turned full circle! The first thing I think of when listening to the opener on this album is .... Metallica. How ironic: the band who influenced the millions-selling thrash act are now being influenced by the very thing they influenced! "Skin on skin" is a totally different animal to anything Diamond Head have recorded prior to this, with a much darker, grindier feel than I've been used to hearing from them. There is probably overspill from their previous collaboration with the great Iommi some years previous, true --- there is a certain Sabbath feel to this track --- but mostly it's I have to say a Metallica rip-off, which I find sad. This is also my first chance to hear new boy Nick Tart, and while he's a good singer I have to say he hasn't the presence of Sean Harris, who I feel is a big loss to the band. Tart is certainly making his mark on the band though, as he helps to write every song on the album, most of which are co-written by Tatler. "I feel no pain" is a little faster but kind of a continuation of the opener, though there is a nice guitar hook in it that reminds me of some of the better moments from "Canterbury".
The next track more or less harks back to their debut, and "This planet and me" is a good solid rocker with some nice atmospheric guitar work at the start and some real fretburning as it goes along. "Reign supreme" is the first DH song in years to bring that old "Whoa-oh-oh-oh" chorus back, and it's nice to hear as it evokes memories of their early efforts during the NWOBHM era. It's quite a brooder though, lot of Sabbath in it, with hard growling guitar and punching drums, Tart snarling out the vocal with ease, and I'm beginning to miss Sean Harris just a little less as I listen to this new lad. Great storming guitar start to "Killing me", and it rocks along nicely. I'd like to say that they've shaken off the Metallica soundalike influence now, though we're only halfway through the album so it could return. Hopefully not though: I prefer my Diamond Head unrefined and original.
There's also a welcome return for the Thin Lizzy style on the guitar, possibly due to the addition of Andy Abberley on guitar, and then an acoustic opening to "Tonight" with a good boogie vibe to it, though I'm not mad about "Pray for me", just seems a little derivative. The title track reminds me of the classic "Borrowed time" album, a mid-paced grinder with a bitter little vocal from Tart, and a nice melodic guitar line from Tatler, though "Nothing to lose", with its telling lines
"I'm not the same man/ You knew before" tells a story of a band desperately trying to prove they don't have to prove anything, if that makes sense... Great guitar solo from Brian, with what also sounds like a squeaky keyboard solo, though again none are credited. Sounds like we may finally be getting a ballad when "Calling out" begins with a relaxed acoustic intro and soft vocal, but Diamond Head seem determined to have no truck with such love songs, and the song breaks out into a sharp rocker, though it does go back into ballad territory for the verse, then rocks out for the chorus: kind of hard to get a proper handle on. The closer then is "Victim", which kicks the tempo back up and leaves you in no doubt these guys are a metal band.
TRACKLISTING
1. Skin on skin
2. I feel no plain
3. This planet and me
4. Reign supreme
5. Killing me
6. Tonight
7. Pray for me
8. What's in your head?
9. Nothing to lose
10. Calling out
11. VIctim
Yeah, it's a decent enough album, but the point about it at this stage is, does anyone care enough to buy it? Yeah of course they do, but what I mean is, has anyone been waiting for this? It seems to me that Diamond Head have been, down the years, the architects of their own destruction, or have at least stood in the way of their own ambition. There's no question that they have the talent to have gone much further, to have made a big splash around the time Maiden, Saxon, Leppard and others were getting their names out there, but they seem to have gone about it all wrong. From alienating their fans, first through a change in musical direction that clearly did not work and their refusal to see that, to two breakups, a stay away from the scene which was far too long to survive their memory, and the skewed view of them from Metallica and Megadeth fans, leaving Diamond Head in the odd, perhaps unique position of covering their own songs, this band seem to have done everything wrong.
Would you let your mother manage your band? Their problems do seem to have stemmed from that originally, when they were counselled against signing with one of the majors, a decision that came back to haunt them, but the real stumbling block for me seems to have been either a short attention span or overreaching ambition. Diamond Head said they soon got bored with heavy metal, and after two well-received albums it seems heavy metal got bored with them. Once the fans lose interest it's hard to get them back, so you have to work really hard and ... break up for ten years.
Looks to me like Diamond Head shot out their own lights, and ended up living on borrowed time. If the title of their last album --- six years ago now: is there likely to be another? --- is taken literally, you would have to wonder what is in their head? Regret? Frustration? A wish that they had done things differently? Or did they just think the NWOBHM scene treated them badly? Well, if you're going to lampoon and disrespect the image of the movement that put you and your fellow bands where they are today, I'm sad to say you really do deserve all you get.
In the final part of this series I'll be talking about one of my other favourite artistes of this era, the much-maligned Tygers of Pan Tang, and looking at their rapid slide from promising beginnings into AOR mediocrity and eventual obscurity, a clear message that it's not always wise to do what the label thinks you should. Also an exercise in loyalty, or the lack of it. I'll also check out Samson and, to be patriotic about it, one of the only Irish acts that qualifies, Mama's Boys. Hopefully it won't take me a year this time! This is not necessarily a joke.