Diamond Head's 2020 take on Lightning To The Nations still rages, but there's one problem

Fortieth-anniversary reworking of Diamond Head's classic debut Lightning To The Nations beats the original to death

By Philip Wilding
( Classic Rock )
published
Diamond Head: Lightning To The Nations 2020
(Image: © Silver Lining Music)

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Strange to think now that at one point in time we all put our faith in the future of hard rock to Sean Harris: a man in an aerobic headband who had the snake-hip shake and familiar scream of a young Robert Plant. 

Combine that with Brian Tatler’s rattling guitar and you had a band that felt like they could shake up musical history.

Forty years later, and Tatler is still raging against the machine, with a new incarnation of Diamond Head that can still turn heads live. But this reimagining of that classic, early incarnation sounds like they’re trying to beat those memories to death. 

Case in point: their version of The Prince sounds like them covering the Metallica take on the Diamond Head song. Confused? You will be. Not least when DH cover Metallica’s No Remorse as an extra. Who made who?

Philip Wilding
Philip Wilding

Philip Wilding is a novelist, journalist, scriptwriter, biographer and radio producer. As a young journalist he criss-crossed most of the United States with bands like Motley Crue, Kiss and Poison (think the Almost Famous movie but with more hairspray). More latterly, he’s sat down to chat with bands like the slightly more erudite Manic Street Preachers, Afghan Whigs, Rush and Marillion.