Out now, is British heavy metal icons Diamond Head‘s Live And Electric, available via Silver Lining Music on double vinyl, CD, and digital formats.
With a thunderous crunch and genuine in-your-face’ production that places the PA up against your ears, Live And Electric, delivers a song selection that covers the band’s seminal career.
Also just released is their latest single, ‘The Messenger’ along with an animated video produced by Costin Chioreanu.
‘The Messenger (Live at the Cambridge Corn Exchange)’ is a very powerful track. It started life in my head when I was watching Cradle Of Filth live on the 70,000 Tons of Metal Cruise” remarked founding member and lead guitarist Brian Tatler. “They played a song with a fantastic groove which reminded me of ‘Tobacco Road’ by The Nashville Teens. I thought to myself ‘that’s brilliant, I will try and come up with a riff for a groove like that’ and so I came up with ‘The Messenger’ riff (everything comes from somewhere).
“We recorded it for the album The Coffin Train and played it live on the 2022 UK and European tour opening for Saxon. It always sounded good live, even next to classic Diamond Head songs like ‘The Prince’ and ‘In the Heat of the Night’. We recorded all the shows on the UK tour and thought this version at Cambridge was the mightiest. Heavy Metaaaaaaaal!”
Prior to that, the first single taken from Live And Electric, was ‘Helpless’. Founding member and lead guitarist Brian Tatler recalled how the song began: “In September 1979 the song ‘Helpless’ began life as a riff I was playing by an obscure punk band. I was playing it at the fifth fret and singer Sean Harris said ‘Play it at the second fret but play it faster’ and the song took shape. It has always been a powerhouse live and one of the songs that has never left the set list. Metallica covered ‘Helpless’ on their $5:98 EP in 1987 which introduced it to a whole new set of metal fans.”
Recorded in 2022 on the band’s tour with Saxon, Live And Electric takes in performances from Aberdeen, Blackburn, York, Cambridge, Cardiff and Bexhill, creating in the process an unmistakably British energy which is superbly recorded and mixed by Jay Shredder, with singer/frontman Rasmus Bom Andersen mastering. By now, the rock and metal scene knows all about Brian Tatler, whose riffs have genuinely defined a genre as well as influencing one of the world’s biggest-ever rock bands, Metallica, but the contribution of Andersen to these Diamond Head performances is said to be “explosive” as he bursts with power, presence and personality.
“It’s the first Diamond Head live album for twenty years and the first time in Diamond Head’s career that we were able to record all fourteen shows and then go through them to find the best performances,” continued Tatler. “In the past we would only record one specific show and so all the pressure to get it right on the night would build up and make everyone very nervous. Somewhere in the middle of this tour things began to gel and fortunately these shows were captured for posterity.”
The seamless way in which old classics such as ‘The Prince’ and newer stormers like ‘Belly Of The Beast’ thunder down the tracks has been described as a testimony to the lock-tight no-nonsense foundation that Paul Gaskin(Bass), Andrew ‘Abbz’ Abberley (Rhythm and lead guitar), and Karl Wilcox on drums add to the alchemy and the balance of respect plus reinvigoration for treasures ‘It’s Electric’, ‘Helpless’ and ‘Am I Evil?’ is said to be electrifying. Live And Electric is a true roots representation of Britain’s metal communities, and a wonderful live celebration of Diamond Head’s distinctly British heavy metal music which feels as fresh, vital, and important now as it ever has before.
Live And Electric features‘The Prince (Live At The Bexhill De La War Pavilion)’, ‘Bones (Live At St David’s Hall, Cardiff)’, The Messenger (Live At The Cambridge Corn Exchange)’, ‘In The Heat Of The Night (Live At The York Barbican)’, ‘Set My Soul On Fire (Live At The Bexhill De La War Pavilion)’,‘It’s Electric (Live At The Bexhill De La War Pavilion)’, Dead Reckoning (Live At The Aberdeen Music Hall)’, ‘Death By Design (Live At The Aberdeen Music Hall)’,’Sweet And Innocent (Live At The Aberdeen Music Hall)’, ‘Helpless (Live At The Aberdeen Music Hall)’, ‘Belly Of The Beast (Live At The Aberdeen Music Hall)’ and ‘Am I Evil? (Live At King George’s Hall, Blackburn)’.
Live And Electric can be ordered here and you can check out the videos here at RAMZine.
