Canterbury [Digipak] - Diamond Head

Advantages: Great NWOBHM band with some wonderful tracks up their collective sleeve
Disadvantages: Some weak points (but only just)

...' on the other hand is a slow, bluesy track with much more of a nod towards the progressive rock camp although never utilising the use of keyboards. 'Am I Evil' is a darker song with a strong Sabbath vain.  Not as bassy but with a sharper edge.  In fact listening to this track the vocalist sounds more like Phil Mogg of UFO, another band Diamond Head credit as having a deep influence on them, than Plant. The remaining four tracks taken from the 'Canterbury' album are all still competent rock tracks but the rawness of the bands previous songs seems to have left them.  The sound has a more definate 80's feel about it and has the same production feel as albums such as 'Pride' by White Lion with their very American touch.  'Ishmael' though is a strong song as is the closing piece 'To the Devil His Due' both harking back to their 'Borrowed Time' period... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful

Advantages: Great music, great energy
Disadvantages: Experimented... the experiment didn't work

...This is the story of a band that should by rights have been as big as Iron Maiden... Diamond Head are forgotten by most people now, but for a brief while in the very late 70s / very early 80s they were being touted as the saviours of rock and metal and one of the finest exponents of what was called NWOBHM (New Wave of British Heavy Metal) along with bands such as Iron Maiden, Saxon and (though you might not believe it these days) Def Leppard. Their music was energetic, tuneful, and strangely for a band of this type, more than slightly reminiscent of Led Zeppelin. This album, "Am I Evil" recorded in 1979, pretty much at the birth of NWOBHM, is by far the best example of what Diamond Head could do when they were on top form. The album starts with the epic title track itself, which for the time was not only astonishingly heavy but also... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful

Advantages: So different to other songwriters
Disadvantages: Some of the tracks end too abruptly

...... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average not helpful