Diamond Head - Diamond Head (2016)

Genre - Hard Rock / NWoBHM / Classic Rock

Label - Dissonance

Track listing:

01 - Bones
02 - Shout At The Devil
03 - Set My Soul On Fire
04 - See You Rise
05 - All The Reasons You Live
06 - Wizards Sleeve
07 - Our Time Is Now
08 - Speed
09 - Blood On My Hands
10 - Diamonds
11 - Silence

Another album that has been out a little while, released back in March,  but certainly not one that you should allow to slip under your radar is the latest release from NWoBHM legends Diamond Head. Now Diamond Head are a strange beast. When they broke onto the scene in the late seventies and early eighties they were the spear head of the then blossoming NWoBHM scene, along with Iron Maiden, Saxon and Def Leppard, but a series of poor managerial decisions led to them loosing momentum and eventually calling it a day after 1983's Canterbury album, only to briefly reunite in the early 1990's for the Death and Progress album. They once again regrouped around 2005, all be it with a new vocalist, Nick Tart, to release two more well received albums only to once again go quiet around 2009. So here we are eight years on from their last studio release, 2007's What's in Your Head with another new vocalist, Rasmus Bom Andersen, (in fact the only original member of the band is founding guitarist, Brian Tatler),  the mighty Diamond Head are back with their new and self titled album, Diamond Head.

Brian Tatler even toyed with the notion of never recording another Diamond Head album but  Brian's change of heart was inspired by the introduction of new vocalist Rasmus Bom Andersen, another great Dane who has helped transform Diamond Head's career. Ras is the perfect fit for the band. He sounds enough like original singer Sean Harris to give the new material a classic Diamond Head feel but has enough originality in his voice to make the songs his own and to make them sound fresh.

Diamond Head see's the band reconnecting with their original style and sound with so much ease, with new vocalist, Rasmus Andersen's voice being far closer to original singer Sean Harris than his predecessor Nick Tart. In fact, this new album is probably the closest sounding thing that we could ever get to the sound of a full reformation of the original line up of the band!

 First track "Bones" is a total barnstormer, Heavy Metal like it should be, after that there is no drop in quality. Special mention must be made of the two epic tracks "All the reasons you live" and "Silence", the latter in particular is a tour-de-force for Andersen. “Wizard Sleeve” is total ’70s style boogie-rock, and it’s tons of fun. My favourite track has to be  “Silence,” with its symphonic elements giving it a real “Kashmir”/”Stargazer” feel.

All I can say is welcome back Diamond Head, please stick around!

Very Highly Recommended!!!

Rating: 10/10

Line Up:
Brian Tatler-Lead Guitar
Eddie Moohan-Bass
Karl Wilcox-Drums
Rasmus Bom Andersen-Lead Vocals
Andy ‘abbz’ Abberly-Rhythm Guitar