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29 of 32 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
What befalls us in the heat of the night?, 26 Dec 2002
Being a young male with no memories of what Diamond Head were and what happened to them this was an interesting CD to listen to, I won't lie, I bought it because I love Metallica and there are five songs from Diamond Head on Garage Inc. Four of which are on this CD with the exception of The Prince which is sadly missed.
There are a handfull of bands whose lead singers are naturally amazing singers, people who were, clearly, born to sing. Bruce Dickinson is one of these people. James Hetfield of Metallica is not one of these people, his vocal range has been tested and pushed so he can become the incredibly capable singer he is today. When you listen to Sean Harris you know that he is a born singer. I have seen him live, recently, and he seems to strut about the stage totally unaware of the amazing vocal performance that he is giving. I saw in a bar with a capacity of about three hundred people with his remaining member from this album Brian Tatler who is the lead guitarist. What a crying shame, Diamond Head had all the songs, they had the most unbelievable talent, great drumwork, blistering solos and rythm parts, and the most amazing singer, so what went wrong? This album is a clear indication of what did go wrong as it is like listening to two or even three completely different styles of music.
It's Electric sounds like it starts halfway through the intro but it is nonetheless a brilliant opener with slightly cheesy lyrics and, despite being a better singer, Harris's vocals are inferior to Hetfield's performance on Garage Inc. This is the only song be inferior to the Metallica cover.
Shoot Out The Lights, an obvious inspiration for Hit The Lights, is a fairly average song with an almost very good guitar riff and an average, pretty thoughtless chorus.
Helpless is a lengthy classic, clocking in at under seven minutes it has about a million different, brilliant parts which are all catchy and not boring, the drum intro is a particular highlight. The lyrics here are pretty similar to It's Electric, talking about how they want to be amazing rock stars, ironically enough.
Sucking My Love is just too long but features a brilliant guitar riff which is repeated about a million times. Without the repetition it would be a cracking song. This intro is an exact template for No Remorse.
Call Me, again, is catchy but with pretty silly lyrics, overall this song is alright with an excellent refrain.
Borrowed Time and In The Heat Of The Night are the first songs to show some lyrical prowess with brilliant vocals and excellent guitar solos. Borrowed Time is a better song with the most unbelievably catchy refrain and the most touching verse melody. I enjoy Saun Tatler's scream/singer over guitar riffs, seen for the first time here. I've heard an In The Heat Of The Night acoustic version which has a much better vocal line for the chorus but it is still a cracker of a song.
Lightning To The Nations is my favourite song on the album, probably tied with The Prince for my favourite Diamond Head song. Vocals are probably some of the best vocals I've ever heard here. Tatler showing off his unique voice and one word melodies over the chorus and intro. It feels like you are being lifted out of your seat when you hear this chorus. The verse is an obvious template for the chorus for Where Ever I May Roam by the way.
Am I Evil, Vocals wise isn't as strong, but in pure strength, head banging brilliance and outstanding lyrics, (My mother was a witch, she was burned alive, thankless little bitch, for the tears I cried) it outstrips Lightning... because of it's two extremely strong parts which could be two songs. When Diamond Head played this live it was the best song I've ever heard live, absloutly phenomenal. These two songs see Diamond Head at their best.
Makin' Music could be mistaken, Guitar wise, for an AC/DC song. It seems that the great lyrics has been forsaken for slightly cheesy rock and roll instead of hard rock. This is where Diamond Head clearly faulted, comitting suicide with their careers by changing their sound. This is still a brilliant song and it shows how diverse Diamond Head can be. I cannot imagine Metallica pulling off something like this, or Iron Maiden for that matter.
Out Of Phase provides half the chorus lyrics for Nothing Else Matters in the first line but this sounds like The Grateful Dead, Ok it's a great song but Diamond Head must have known they were investing in risky business.
Ishmael Dives into eastern philosophy and it's good to see some intelligent, meaningfull lyrics after the obvious feel good factor of the last two songs. I wonder how hard it is to guess where Metallica got the riff for Fade To Black from after listening to this. A slight let down in the chorus doesn't change the great atmosphere of this song.
To The Devil His Due is a melancholy song which is a great way to finish this album off. Think Rock And Roll Ain't Noise Pollution with feeling and profound lyrics and you have a template for this song.
To compare Diamond Head to other bands is hard because they changed their sound so much so it cannot be said that they are better than certain bands. If you compare them to Iron Maiden then in some respects they kick their arses. Tatler may be an inferior singer to Dickinson, only just, but his melodies are much better. The solos are blistering form Tatler and Harris, Gerrs and Smith would be hard pressed to provide any solos as good as Am I Evil and Sucking My Love. The bass is clearly better with Iron Maiden being a bass driven band as are the drums in Maiden. I used to think that Metallica were phenomenal but after listening to this you realise that there sound is heavily plaugerised and that one of the best riffs ever, For Whom The Bell Tolls, is clearly almost the same as a song written ten years before it, Am I Evil? Metallica are still a great band with better lyrics but in some respects, vocal melodies, riffs writing capabilities are clearly much more original and just better.
It's a crying shame that Diamond Head are not the giants that they sould be, having spoken to the band I have seen that they are humbled people but what a kick in the shins playing in front of sixty thousand people with Metallica playing songs they wrote and then having a fifteen year old kid wishing them the knid of success they deserve in their careers. What an injustice, is there something wrong with the world? Obviously but this band are great and should be held in higher regard than Metallica, Guns n' Roses and Megadeth mainly because they were clearly an inspiration. Iron Maiden were the band to profit out of the New Wave Of British Heavy Metal, Diamond Head should be there with them. I was in two minds as to wether to buy this album but this is an absoloute must for any metal fan for two reasons.
The first is that this band are on the brink of poverty and they have contributed so much to the world of music that they deserve your support and respect and the second is that this is a blistering album with the best versions of these songs recorded, so in short Maiden rock and so do Metallica but Diamond Head rock just as hard so buy this and find out where Metallica come from, or just buy it and listen to the only British hard rock band (N.B. I consider Led Zeppelin rock and not hard rock or else they would be in this list as well, ditto Sabbath I'm afraid and Judas Priest are nowhere near as good as Iron Maiden in my opinion) to rival Iron Maiden, or just buy it because it's absoloutely classic and brilliant.
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7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A fine collection of this bands work, 19 Mar 2001
By A Customer
This is a really good collection that anyone who has not heard much by Diamond Head should get hold of. The really early songs stand the test of time very well, while the tracks from the "Living on Borrowed Time" album sound as good as ever. My only moan, why on earth is the title track from the "Canterbury" album not featured?
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Forget Metallica, 14 Jun 2007
well...
all you fans of metallica, don't come looking here for a thrash metal album...
a couple of years ago i bought the garage inc album from metallica which has to be my faveourite of theirs. After swiftly realising it was an album of covers, i researched the artists of the originals and started listening to diamond head.
This was the album i bought. and may i just say, it is a thing of beauty. One of my favourite albums. But please for the love of god dont buy it thinking that it will be a thrash/speed metal noise bomb. Its not.
Although Diamond Head portray a sound that predates anything very heavy, this album shows the transfer into NWOBHM...my favourite tracks have to be Its electric, shoot out the lights, Am i evil..., Lightning to the nations and making music.
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