Diamond Head
photo: selbymay · cc by-sa 4.0 ↗Diamond Head formed in Stourbridge, England, in 1976 and became one of the most admired bands of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal, built around guitarist Brian Tatler's riff-writing and Sean Harris's high, keening vocals. Their 1980 debut, often called 'Lightning to the Nations,' was a self-released, low-budget record whose ambitious, riff-driven songs outstripped their commercial reach at the time. Championed relentlessly by Metallica, who covered several of their songs, Diamond Head grew into one of the genre's most influential cult acts.
Diamond Head have often been described, and have described themselves, in Led Zeppelin's shadow: Sean Harris's high, banshee vocal owes to Robert Plant's wail, and Brian Tatler's dynamic riff-and-release writing borrows Zeppelin's light-and-shade dynamics scaled up to metal. It is one reason early Diamond Head sounded more expansive than most of their NWOBHM peers.
listen forPut on Led Zeppelin's 'Immigrant Song' and its shrieking vocal ride over a driving riff, then hear the same wailing-voice-over-charging-riff attack open Diamond Head's 'Lightning to the Nations.'
As fellow Midlands metal, Black Sabbath gave Diamond Head their taste for the ominous and the heavy — the sense that a riff can feel menacing and that a song can open on dread before it moves. Their early material trades in the same doom-laden atmosphere Sabbath pioneered.
listen forListen to how Black Sabbath's 'Black Sabbath' creeps in on a slow, tolling tritone before the band lurches to life, then hear the same funereal-build-into-heavy-riff move in the long intro of Diamond Head's 'Am I Evil?'
Deep Purple's fusion of speed, virtuoso lead playing and hard-rock muscle is part of the bedrock Diamond Head built on, feeding their appetite for fast, technically ambitious riffing and flashy solos rather than plain three-chord rock. It is audible whenever a Diamond Head song trades its heaviness for sheer velocity.
listen forCue Deep Purple's 'Highway Star' and its flat-out, motoric riff and blazing solo, then jump to the charging opener 'Helpless' by Diamond Head — the same idea that a metal song can simply race, propelled by a fast riff and a show-off lead.