This is considered one of their best albums?
Artiste: Diamond Head
Nationality: British (English)
Album: Canterbury
Year: 1983
Label: MCA
Genre: Heavy Metal/NWOBHM
Tracks:
Makin' music
Out of phase
The kingmaker
One more night
To the Devil his due
Knight of the Swords
Ishmael
I need your love
Canterbury
Chronological position: Third album
Familiarity: “Borrowed time”
Interesting factoid: The album was originally supposed to be called “Makin' music”, after the opening track, but then they changed it. No, I don't know why either.
Initial impression: Don't hear anything too wildly progressive here!
Best track(s): Kingmaker, One more night, To the Devil his due
Worst track(s): Out of phase
Comments: Ah yes, the Diamond Head album where they went all progressive and got up the noses of their fans, in the process quite possibly sowing the seeds for their eventual demise in terms of the fame they could have, and perhaps should have had. I've only heard the excellent “Borrowed time” up to now, and though once again my infamous brother had this album I never bothered to listen to it, so perhaps now is the time? It's a heavy enough opening, sort of puts me in mind of Def Leppard with a certain AOR tinge to the first track, also elements of Irish rockers Aslan in there.
To be honest, I hear nothing that terribly different or progressive until
The kingmaker, where the guys go all Dio-era Rainbow with mbig mraching beat on a cruncher they manage to pull off quite well in my opinion, and
One more night is a good straight-ahead rocker, more what you expect from Diamond Head.
To the Devil his due sort of revisits the title track from “Borrowed time”, sounds like keyboards being used there although they're not credited on the album. The fantasy imagery continues in
The Knight of the Swords, and Diamond Head are now fully immersed in their new progressive style, though to be honest I heard much of this happening on the previous album.
The album is pretty much the baby of guitarist Brian Tatler and vocalist Sean Harris, with the pair writing all the songs, the other two bandmembers having been fired by the label and replaced, but Harris and Tatler were pretty much always the heart of Diamond Head anyway, so I don't see any dip in quality; in fact, I barely realise that there's a new bass player and drummer. Sorry guys! To be honest, it started a little slowly and a little lacklustre, but as it's gone on this album has just got progressively (sorry!) better.
The title track is a great closer, starting out on an acoustic piano ballad melody, then kicking up into a fast, punchy rocker that hurtles along with a lot of energy. Okay, maybe it's not the sharp-edged metal DH fans were used to, but I still like this album, and don't see it departing too far from its predecessor. A very worthy effort, and not to my mind deserving of the lambasting it got from certain quarters.
Overall impression: Pretty much the last line above really...
Intention: I've more Diamond Head to listen to, at some point.