Customer Reviews

Diamond Nights

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For those of you that don't know, the versions of any Diamond Head songs that have been on CD here in the U.S. have not been what was released originally in the late seventies/early eighties on the original "Lightning to the Nations" LP and various 45s that the band pressed on their own. Around 1986 or 87, guitarist Brian Tatler remixed all the tracks in an attempt to update and refine the originals. This is what has appeared on CD as "Behold the Beginning" and as some CD versions of "Lightning to the Nations" especially here in the states. The remixes took much of the bite out of the sound of the songs and even in Lars Ulrich's liner notes for "Behold the Beginning" he even said the originals were better.

For anyone who wants to hear these amazing songs as they are supposed to be heard, the original vinyls of "Lightning" is rare and expensive, but that is no longer a problem! This new collection, "Diamond Nights" is the first official U.S. release of the original mixes of these NWOBHM classics (New Wave of British Heavy Metal-a revival of metal that occurred in the U.K. around 1978-1981 ispired by punk's energy and do-it-youself attitude), and they've been remastered to sound crisp and clear! If you happen to have "Behold the Beginning," once you listen to the original mixes on "Diamond Nights," you will want to throw "Behold" into a wood chipper! If you are a classic metal fan, you will love this! Buy "Diamond Nights" and find out what the fuss was all about over this band!

Diamond Nights is a compilation album of some of the choisest Diamond Head tracks from the late '70s and very early '80s. Diamond Head is a band that is somewhat of a paradox. Most metal fans know their songs, but don't know the band. That is because during Metallica's early days, they performed (and eventually released) many Diamond Head songs. The CD's liner notes cover this by saying, "...Metallica didn't start off creating anything much, only covering songs released by Diamond Head..." The notes go a bit further by saying, "...it might be suggested that Metallica stole the limelight away from Diamond Head, and it should have been Diamond Head who stood in the limelight and not Metallica, even today..." Diamond Head burst out of England around the same time as Iron Maiden and Def Leppard. Unfortunately, they did not share the enormous fame as their collegues. DH's music is outstanding, well crafted and produced, while still having the all-important "rawness" of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal (NWOBHM). DH was powered by Brian Tatler's furious riffing, Sean Harris's soaring vocals, Colin Kimberley's thumpy and precise bass work, and Duncan Scott's heavy-duty drumming. Again, many songs were covered by Metallica, but the originals are always the best. James Hetfield's (annoying) vocals do not even come close. Standout tracks include: "Sweet and Innocent", "The Prince", "Helpless", "I Don't Got", "Lightning to the Nations", "Am I Evil", "Sucking My Love", and "Shoot Out the Lights". The best part of this CD, is these are the original versions of these songs, simply cleaned up and remastered. So, you will hear these tunes how they were meant to be heard. So, if you need some new Metal for your tunes collection, check this one out. It has a great collection of songs (15 tracks), lyrics, and very informative and interesting liner notes. After listening, don't be surprised if you find yourself cursing the very existance of Selloutica (sorry, I mean Metallica).

This "new" Diamond Head compilation is a great buy--not only does it contain all seven tracks from Diamond Head's classic debut LP, "Lightning To The Nations", which is by far the best record they ever made, but its got a bunch of songs from their early singles (like "Streets of Gold", "Shoot Out The Lights" and the somewhat poppy "Waited Too Long"). Although all of the above have been previously available on CDs like "Behold The Beginning" and the re-release of "Lightning...", what puts this CD above the other early DH compilations is that it has all four tracks from the 1981 "Diamond Lights" EP ("Diamond Lights", "We Won't Be Back", "I Don't Got" and the remix of "It's Electric"), never previously available on CD, and all great songs (although the remixed "It's Electric" really isn't all that different than the "Lightning..." version). Well worth having whether you're new to Diamond Head or are an old fan looking for a great mix.

This are the same songs on High Vaultage Records' compilation CD "Lightning To The Nations", although Metal Blade changed the playing order. To play the songs from the debut LP in their original order, play these tracks: 7, 4, 12, 10, 2, 14, 5. The other songs are from singles or the EP album "Diamond Lights" (which BTW is also the title of track 15, despite what this page says.) Personally I like the songs from the LP (especially "Helpless") better than the others. The band's untitled debut LP is generally considered to be their best album. I think it's one of the best rock albums ever. If you like any kind of power metal or thrash metal you'll probably like this CD. If you like this you'll probably also like their last studio album "Death & Progress" (the song "Damnation Street" from that one is a lot like "I Don't Got", one of the non-album tracks on this compilation.), although I prefer this one. That album has better sound quality, but I prefer the more "raw" production on this one. The production here is better than the production of "Live In The Heat Of The Night" also. "See the flashing lights, hear the thunder roar!" - Sean Harris

They are among the first members of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal (NWOBHM) which brought to life groups like Motorhead, Iron Maiden, Saxon and Tygers of Pan Tang. Yet they never got the airplay or the record sales that they deserve. This CD is a re-packaged, re-released version of the limited re-release of Lightning to the Nations, the groups debut cd. The production has been cleaned up and the songs sound crisper than ever, and the tracks have been rearranged in a far superior order (Note: Track 15 is called Diamond Lights, not Diamond Nights). Some people have criticized Sean Harris' vocals as a reason why the group never took off, and admittedly, there are a couple songs in their catalogue that are mildly annoying because of his voice, but you listen to Diamond Head for the pleasure of the songwriting and Brian Tatler's breakthrough guitar work. Let's give a quick rundown of the song list:

We'll start with a classic track, The Prince. This is a straightforward metal blitz, showing the truw origins of the thrash style perfected by Metallica and Megadeth. 'Talica even covered it on Garage Days Inc. After that is Helpless, one of the better lyric songs in the catalogue, but another rocking classic, and another Met. cover. Lightning to the Nations was the bands anthem when it began, and it still has the feel of what coulod have been a radio-friendly song, with its crisp chorus, and less lengthy arrangement. It's Electric is a five-star song about being a rock-n-roller, and its one of the bands best. The remix isnt altogether necessary, but oh well, i dont mind hearing it twice. Shoot out the lights, Sucking my Love, Sweet and Innocent are all straightforward rock/metal songs which are DH classics, that you just have to hear. The six newer songs are quite interesting, with the best being Diamond Lights and Streets of Gold. We won't be back yields on ominous note to all of us who desire a DH reunion. This brings me to Am I Evil. This is oner of the greatest songs of all-time, and the band's best. The driving beat at the beginning can stir the blood of even the most casual of listener. Tatler's guitar work is spectacular in this piece, and even borrows a riff from Guitar-God Ritchie Blackmore (Deep Purple, Rainbow, Blackmore's Night). This song also showcases the strongest lyrical work the band put out, and some of the best percussion work as well. Just listen to it again, and again, and you'll realize why it's one of Metallica's alltime favorite concert covers. Buy this CD if you're already a DH fan. If you like metal, either thrash or Maiden's melodic style get this now. If you like hard rock (i.e. Guns and Roses) try it. If you do like it I would humbly reccommend Kamelot's The Fourth Legacy and Legacy of Kings by Hammerfall as two of the NEW Heavy Metal aces. Brian, Sean.... please reunite Diamond Head!!!!

Everybody who has a respectable interest in metal has heard of Diamond Head. They are the band that Lars Ulrich had a metallicrush on, the band whom who countless other bands likely would cite as an influence, and the band whom make great music themselves. I'm sort of disgusted when I listen to people say that other peoples' versions of Diamond Head's material are better, since, well, Diamond Head is the band who wrote this music and played it to begin with! This is true NWOBHM music, that can be appreciated best by a NWOBHMhead. While many people are likely unaware that they are listening to remixes of Diamond Head's debut and that there exist out there way better, way more original versions of those songs, here this album comes about... featuring the entire original Lightning to the Nations (in a weird track order for some reason) as well as a wealth of bonus material. The true way that you should organize the songs on this album to resemble what Brian Tatler and Sean Harris likely would have wanted you to hear them as, is:

1. Lightning to the Nations
2. The Prince
3. Sucking My Love
4. Am I Evil?
5. Sweet and Innocent
6. It's Electric
7. Helpless
8. Shoot Out the Lights
9. Streets of Gold
10. Waited Too Long
11. Play It Loud
12. Diamond Lights
13. We Won't Be Back
14. I Don't Got
15. It's Electric [Remix]

Personally, my favorite tracks are 1, 2, 4, 6, and 8.

Diamond Head's style on this album can be described as a cross between Black Sabbath and Judas Priest. I have heard many people compare Diamond Head to Led Zeppelin for some reason, and I think such comparisons are way off. There is no bluesy hard rockers on this album, and Sean Harris sounds much more like Ozzy Osbourne than he does like Robert Plant. Brian Tatler, the wonderful guitarist who shines out on this album as brightly as K.K. Downing or Glenn Tipton of Judas Priest. The song Am I Evil, in my opinion, showcases Diamond Head's unique style, which combines a Black Sabbath-like darkness (complete with way-distorted, sludgy guitar riffs) with a punkish aggression. It's no wonder that Diamond Head went on to influence so many countless metal bands afterwords, because with this album, they truly did something remarkable.

Although I'm only 23 years old but I'm a lover of good metal music and most of today's metal bands don't even come close to the old metal bands and it's a shame that Diamond Head didn't achieve the hard earned success that they deserved but fortunately Lars Ulrich (drummer of Metallica) was heavily influenced by Diamond Head and Metallica themselves did cover versions of Diamond Head and if it wasn't for Lars Ulrich, all of their CD's would likely been out of print and only a very few people would be able to discover this band, my favorite songs by Diamond Head are Helpless, Am I Evil, The Prince, We Won't Be Back, I Don't Got, It's Electric (remix) and Sweet and Innocent, the other songs are really good and I hope that someday millions of people would get to know more about Diamond Head and it is my understanding that they didn't even tour the states until like a few years ago.

This CD is a reasonably good value (15 songs clocking in at over 70 minutes long) and the music is awesome, this is one of my favorite CD's that I own and I'm really happy that I got it, I actually first heard of them from a Black Sabbath compilation album and I also remember hearing Metallica's version of Am I Evil on the radio and I had no idea that it was Diamond Head that originally composed that song and I owe it to Metallica and Megadeth for being totally influenced by Diamond Head cause without them Diamond Head would've been long gone and it would be extremely impossible to find their albums.

I never got how a band like Diamond Head could be forgotten while inferior bands(at least in my opinion) like Iron Maiden are still around abnd kicking today. These guys were simply amazing. Every track on this disc rocks hard. Diamond Head will always be overlooked by the mainstream, but at least pick this up and see jsut how great this four Brits were.

Diamond Head rocks pretty hard. They are to Motorhead what the Faces are to the Stones - better lead singer, not quite as good, but still really good. Standout tracks include Am I Evil and Shoot out the Lights.

You can definetely hear their influence on Metallica. This is what heavy metal should be.

I got this cd because i heard it was a major influence to bands like metallica and megadeth, i though i would be getting some kick @$$ nwobhm metal in the vain of saxon, iron maiden or motorhead or even venom. instead what i got was a band thats sounds a little too much like thin lizzy. i don't get how these guys were so influential, don't get me wrong, i like their music, i thought the cd was pretty good strait forward 70's rock n roll, but thats it. this isn't "heavy" at all, this is comparable to most 70's areana rock. i write this as a warning so others wont be fooled like i have THIS ISN'T METAL AT ALL! this is just an average late 70's rock band, christ, aerosmith has put-out heavier music then this.