Happy Valentine’s Day! I’ve had a
pretty good Valentine’s Day weekend, just housin’ and chillin’ with my girl.
Disc 831 is….Am I Evil? The Diamond Head Anthology
Artist: Diamond
Head
Year of Release: 2004 but featuring
music from 1980-1993
What’s up with the Cover? The Diamond Head logo on a white
background. I like this album cover’s simplicity.
How I Came To Know It: I can’t remember. I knew I wanted
to get the original version of “Am I Evil?” after learning that the Metallica
version was a cover. It was likely one of two fellow metal fans (Spence or
Ross) that alerted me to the band.
How It Stacks Up: This is a compilation album so according to
long-standing CD Odyssey policy and procedures it doesn’t stack up.
Ratings: Compilation albums don’t get
rated either. That’s just how I roll. If you want to know how I feel about this
one you’re going to have to keep reading.
I tend prefer anthologies to greatest hits records
because they have a lot more music and therefore give you a better feel for what
the band is all about. Diamond Head’s
“Am I Evil?” showcases the good and the bad of this approach.
This anthology covers the time when Sean Harris was
the lead singer of the band, which only encompasses four studio albums. With
two CDs and over two hours of music very little is left out. In fact from the
band’s first two albums (1980’s “Lightning to the Nations” and 1982’s “Borrowed
Time”) only two songs are missing. So unless you really like “Sweet and Innocent” and “Don’t You Ever Leave Me” you’re covered.
This early period showcases the best of Diamond Head.
They are part of the very influential New Wave of British Heavy Metal at this
time, alongside better known bands Judas Priest and Iron Maiden. They have
elements that remind me of two those bands. The pounding guitar lines that deep
down have their roots in the blues remind me strongly of Priest, but the fanciful
songs about knights and dragons and prophecies show elements of Maiden as well.
Sean Harris doesn’t have the pipes of Rob Halford or
Bruce Dickinson, but he gets the job done, and Brian Tatler is talented at
banging out a crunchy riff or a fast and furious solo on his electric guitar.
Together these guys write all the songs, and have a flair for working in hints
of prog rock, but never enough that you could call them on it. They aren’t
afraid to alter the course of the song midway, but still keep the energy up.
The early tracks from 1980-1982 are definitely the
highlights of the album. “Am I Evil?”
is a classic track. In fact, once you hear the Diamond Head original you
realize how little Metallica added to it. The two versions sound very similar
and I have a hard time picking my favourite.
“It’s Electric,”
“Shoot Out the Lights” and “Dead Reckoning” are all classic Diamond
Head songs, with power and energy that makes you feel like speeding (I listened
to these songs while walking home from work, but I feel like they made me walk faster). “I Don’t Got” sounds like Led Zeppelin on steroids, which is just what
Led Zeppelin needs sometimes.
Unfortunately, the second CD of the album highlights
how the magic of their first two albums faded. Half of 1983’s “Canterbury” is
on the anthology and you can feel the band lose its way into more pop-driven
numbers. “Makin’ Music” feels more
like seventies stadium rock than eighties metal. I still like the song, but it
is missing the edge of their earlier stuff.
This is also the point the songs become more fantasy-based
and I think if I had known Diamond Head back in 1983 I would’ve liked this part
of their career much more. “Knight of the
Swords” is about the series of books by Michael Moorcock about Corum
Jhaelen Irsei which I loved as a kid. Check out these crazy fantasy-fueled
lyrics:
"A jewelled sceptre plucked
by order to serve their cause
To vanquish the swords of chaos
and tip the scales again
The last of noble blood you know
time must take its course
You blood red robe will never
feel the same."
This also puts Diamond Head in elite company with
Blue Oyster Cult and Hawkwind, all bands who wrote songs about Moorcock’s
Eternal Champion fantasy novels.
Unfortunately, the last half of the second CD in the
anthology is dedicated to their 1993 comeback album “Death and Progress” which –
based on the four songs included here – is more death than progress. All
semblance of heaviness has been stripped out and even the fantasy fun is
missing. The best I can offer is that they sound like a better version of Def
Leppard. Unfortunately even a good version of Def Leppard is not good.
Overall, “Am I Evil?” is a great anthology of
Diamond Head, but much like the band it is better early on and slowly fades as
you are walked through the band’s career. I hate to be one of those “I only
like their early stuff” music snobs, but this time it’s true.
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