45 years ago today…
Diamond Head setlist @ 2016 Metal Brew Festival
… one of the greatest (and influential) albums of all time was released–Diamond Head’s “Lightning to the Nations”. 12 year old me recorded it onto cassette off the radio. There probably aren’t that many other fans of Diamond Head who knew about them before Metallica. Speaking of influential… Have you ever listened to Metallica’s “Ron McGovney’s ’82 Garage demo”? Every song is either a Diamond Head cover or a new Metallica song that sounds more like Diamond Head than it does like Metallica’s “Kill ‘Em All”.
As a teenager I listened to Diamond Head a lot, but they didn’t tour anywhere near me. So it wasn’t until more than 35 years later that I saw them live for the first time, in the UK of all places. And on that night they played six of the seven tracks on “Lightning to the Nations”.
