Reviews list for Diamond Head - Lightning to the Nations (1980)

This will be sacrilegious I am aware, and I will preface this with saying I could only find the 2021 remaster and not the original recording to listen, but I found this to be less appealing then the 2020 remake. The 2020 remake felt more fun the way I want my heavy metal. I've gone back and forth with these versions, and the remastered version is the weaker one. I wonder if it really is the upscaling of the production that gives off too clean of a vibe for what they were originally going for but it doesn't work for me here. Lighting To The Nations and Am I Evil are both on the next album Borrowed Time and while I think Am I Evil sounds better there with it's more darker ominous sound, I actually love the brightened more danceable Lightning on the 2020 album. Hearing a more original form of Borrowed Time makes me wonder if the original Lighting to the Nations album did have a darker sounds that would be more fitting, I do like my heavy metal fun and upbeat where I felt like the 2020 version actually felt like the band was having fun again in the recording.  The "Lost Original Mix" versions that's on the remaster are also different enough to be mentioned but you can tell they're remastered of what they were. It's hard to recommend this album without knowing how it originally sounded but with all the remasters and revisions it's usually the original recordings that do the best job of getting the intended experience. 

Diamond Head. A band many will know from Metallica's covers of several of their songs. The four horsemen no doubt introduced many (especially younger fans) to a less well-known NWOBHM band, and all four of those cover tracks came from Lightning to the Nations. So let's see how they, and the rest, hold up in their original form.

Getting to the gloriously awesome elephant in the room right away, "Am I Evil?" is an amazing track, one of those that has earned every bit of its classic status. The whole thing bubbles and rumbles with badass swagger while it lays out its deliciously grim tale, then half way through belts up into a full gallop that no doubt helped inspire Metallica and other early thrashers. There's no question this should make it onto anyone's "best metal tracks" list.

While the rest of the album might not live up to that same lofty standard, that honestly says more about "Am I Evil?" than any of the other songs, there are still plenty of winning moments throughout. "Lightning to the Nations" has a bouncing guitar tone similar to contemporaries Saxon, with occasional dips into something doomier like Cirith Ungol, all of it pure NWOBHM. "Helpless" is another one whose d-beat kick clearly helped in the emergence of thrash a few years down the line, as does the toe-tapping fun of "The Prince". "It's Electric" is a perfect driving song for cruising down a long highway to.

The closest the album comes to actual weak tracks are "Sweet and Innocent" and "Sucking My Love", and even then, "Sweet and Innocent" isn't bad, just nothing special, and "Sucking My Love" has good point: it's got a catchy riff at the core, and duelling guitars paired well with a sexy bass rumble. It just really has no need to be almost 10 minutes long, especially given how asinine the lyrics are. Yes, it really is just a song about oral sex, filled with "Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, tasty! Tasty! Sucking my love, oh lord, sucking my love!" alongside moans and gasps. Unlike its subject matter, it's outstayed its welcome after a few minutes.

All that said, there's something I find lacking in the album as a whole. Despite all the good points to be found, outside of "Am I Evil?" this album just doesn't stick with me so well. It's got some great catchy melodies and riffs, but that's kind of all it's got. It doesn't have the same raw energy as Priest or the darkness of Sabbath. Lightning to the Nations feels like a sampler platter: plenty of good parts, but it feels like it doesn't add up to much beyond the sum of its parts. Still, those parts make for some tasty morsels.

Choice cuts: Am I Evil?, It's Electric