Diamond Head

History

Diamond Head emerged from the working-class Black Country town of Stourbridge, West Midlands, in 1976, when schoolfriends Brian Tatler and Duncan Scott began jamming in bedrooms long before they had a full band or proper equipment. By June of that year they had recruited vocalist Sean Harris, whose raw, distinctive voice would become central to the band’s sound. Bassist Colin Kimberley completed the lineup in 1978, and with that, the classic Diamond Head lineup was in place.

From the start, Diamond Head focused almost entirely on original material. By the time they recorded Lightning to the Nations, the band had written roughly 100 original songs. Their sound drew on Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, Deep Purple, and Judas Priest, but pushed toward heavier, more riff-driven arrangements with longer, more complex song structures. In a late-1970s English rock landscape dominated by punk, Diamond Head built a local following gig by gig across the Black Country.

Lightning to the Nations

Unable to land a major label deal despite attracting interest, Diamond Head took matters into their own hands. The debut album Lightning to the Nations was recorded in seven days at a studio in Worcester and pressed in an initial run of just 1,000 copies, sold at gigs and through a mail-order ad in Sounds magazine. The original sleeve was entirely blank — no title, no track listing, no band name — a consequence of the band’s manager owning a cardboard factory. It became known as The White Album among fans for obvious reasons.

What was inside, however, was anything but bare. Seven songs — “Am I Evil?,” “The Prince,” “Sucking My Love,” “Helpless,” “Lightning to the Nations,” “It’s Electric,” and “Sweet and Innocent” — constituted an unusually ambitious debut, packed with multi-part structures, extended runtimes, and dense, heavy riffing. The album found only a small audience at first, but among them was a young Danish tape-trader in Los Angeles named Lars Ulrich, who heard “It’s Electric” on a compilation and later joked that he played it ‘like 9,000 times’ over the following month.

The album’s master tapes were lost after the band’s old manager sent them to a German record label. Lars Ulrich helped track them down in 1990 while compiling an NWOBHM anniversary compilation, and made sure they were eventually returned to Tatler.

MCA, Borrowed Time, and the First Breakup

Diamond Head finally signed to MCA Records in January 1982, after a persistent push from A&R man Charlie Eyre, who had left A&M for MCA determined to sign Diamond Head. The deal came with genuine major-label resources: a proper producer in Mike Hedges, studio time, and a lavish gatefold sleeve illustrated by Rodney Matthews depicting the fantasy character Elric of Melniboné. Borrowed Time peaked at No. 24 on the UK Albums Chart — the band’s commercial high-water mark — and the tour that followed took them to London’s Hammersmith Odeon.

For the follow-up, the band pushed toward a more experimental, art-rock-inflected sound of its own accord. Canterbury (1983) sold worse than Borrowed Time had. The album peaked at No. 32, and the recording process itself had been difficult: drummer Duncan Scott was fired mid-session, and bassist Colin Kimberley recorded his parts and immediately quit. Harris and Tatler regrouped with replacement musicians to finish the record. The first 20,000 copies were also pressed with a vinyl defect that caused the LP to skip.

MCA dropped the band in early 1984. Diamond Head spent another year writing, recording demos, and losing money on touring before the band quietly dissolved in early 1985. By then, Metallica had already been covering Diamond Head songs in their live shows for years, though this brought no immediate change to Diamond Head’s own commercial fortunes.

Reunions, Revolving Doors, and the Road to Reinvention

Diamond Head began regrouping in 1990, with Tatler and Harris re-establishing contact and bringing in Karl Wilcox on drums and Eddie Moohan on bass. The band returned to live performance in 1991. Death and Progress (1993) arrived with an unexpected pair of guest contributions: Tony Iommi played additional guitar on the opening track, and Dave Mustaine both produced and contributed guitar to another. The album was released in the same month the band opened for Metallica and Megadeth at the National Bowl in Milton Keynes. Harris took the stage dressed as the Grim Reaper. The band split up again shortly afterward.

A second reunion in 2000 was quieter, beginning with acoustic performances and a debut US concert in 2002. Nick Tart replaced Harris as vocalist in 2004, and All Will Be Revealed (2005) was released alongside a sold-out European tour supporting Megadeth. A second album with Tart, What’s in Your Head? (2007), continued in a similar vein. When Tart emigrated to Australia in 2008, the band kept going by flying him back and forth for shows. That arrangement continued until his last performance with Diamond Head in 2013.

Rasmus Bom Andersen and the Comeback

In 2014, on a friend’s recommendation, Diamond Head auditioned Danish-born vocalist and producer Rasmus Bom Andersen, who had been living in London since 2005. He came to Diamond Head without prior familiarity with their catalog, and did not attempt to replicate Sean Harris’s vocal style.

A trial European tour convinced Tatler the partnership was worth building around. Work on a new album began in 2015. The self-titled Diamond Head (2016) was the band’s first album of new material since 2007. “Bones,” “Set My Soul on Fire,” and “All the Reasons You Live” carried complex song structures and heavy riffing reminiscent of the band’s earlier work. The album reached No. 15 on the UK Rock & Metal chart.

The Coffin Train (2019) followed three years later, with Andersen taking on production and mixing duties alongside his vocal role. The album peaked at No. 5 on the UK Rock & Metal chart, ten places higher than the self-titled album’s No. 15 in 2016. Its lead single was “Belly of the Beast.”

In 2020, Diamond Head re-recorded Lightning to the Nations with the Rasmus Bom Andersen-era lineup to mark the debut’s 40th anniversary. The album included four cover tracks, one each from Metallica, Led Zeppelin, Judas Priest, and Deep Purple. Live And Electric (2025), recorded on the 2022 tour with Saxon, documented performances from across the UK.

Legacy

In June 2024, Brian Tatler joined Metallica onstage at Oslo’s Tons of Rock festival for “Am I Evil?,” with Kirk Hammett switching to rhythm guitar for the performance.

Tatler has remained a member of Diamond Head through every lineup change since the band’s formation in 1976. “Am I Evil?,” “The Prince,” and “Helpless” went on to influence a number of thrash metal bands, most notably Metallica.