Lightning to the Nations 2020 - A Review.
Lightning to the Nations 2020
I cannot remember exactly when, but I saw Diamond Head live at the Southampton Gaumont ( some time in the early 80s) and I have been a fan since. They were always a bit overlooked at the time, but produced some great work.
I especially like Borrowed Time and ( yes I know I shouldn’t say it! ) Canterbury but Lightning to the Nations is also one of their stand out albums.
So now we have the 2020 version- A full 40 years on from the original and supplemented by four covers( Deep Purple, Led Zeppelin , Judas Priest and Metallica) as a kind of homage to what was going on at the time of writing the original album.
Lightning to the Nations has been cited by none other than Lars Ulrich as the catalyst for Metallica and has also been heralded as one of the pioneering works in what became known as the Mew Wave of British Heavy Metal.
The album has been rerecorded and the sound is AMAZING. Some of the riffs and vocals here are of the highest order and it is easy to see why the original album was the start of something big- for rock music in general if not, unfortunately for the band itself.
Commercial success was achieved to an extent but possibly not as much as they deserved.
For fans of the band, this is a trip down memory lane to listen to a great set of songs. For those that missed out the first time, this is well worth a listen- Am I Evil is still, in my humble opinion, one of the best metal songs ever written.
I have to say I miss Sean Harris. He was the vocalist that I know and I liked his voice a lot. Take nothing away from Rasmus Bom Anderson who has a fantastic voice and fits brilliantly with the rest of the band.
Singers move on for lots of reasons and we would have lost Queen, AC/DC and Deep purple years ago( to name but a few )if this didn’t happen.
The different vocalist is not reason to ignore the album or to denigrate it but it is- for me – different and new. I have rediscovered the band as a result of this rerelease and for that I am very grateful.
The album deserves to be thought of as a solid piece of work – the rough edges have now been removed and it is a reminder of where some aspects of rock music today took a lot of its influence from.
Go listen! Do not forget Borrowed Time and Canterbury as well ( although be prepared for the latter to be a bit of a medieval surprise!)
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Lightning to the Nations 2020 – A Review by James Griffiths |
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