Review by Shezma 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.