Review Summary: A fine legacy
It's funny how the 60's-70's British rock invasion of America repeated itself in Metal as well, only in a lot more subtle way. In the early 80's, most aspiring American metal bands were concerned mainly with Black Sabbath, Judas Priest and Iron Maiden. Three certain metal figures, however, dared to look beyond what was readily available and searched for inspiration in more obscure places. It was this specific curiosity that eventually turned Lars Ulrich, Dave Mustaine, and James Hetfield into the spearheads of American metal in the 80's.
Diamond Head's immortal status is granted precisely by the legacy that the band left. Before metal took a turn for the worse somewhere in the late 80's and degenerated into the autism of downtuned gallops and mindless tremolo picking (hello, Slayer wannabes), there used to be a lot of electricity and sex in the guitars. Lightning to the Nations, simply put, sounded like the future. And the aforementioned trio of then-future millionaires was sharp enough to realize this. When I listen to albums like Kill 'em All and Killing is My Business, I hear exactly the logical continuation of what Diamond Head had set in motion.
The life essence of this album lies in its riffs. Judas was simply melodic -- Diamond Head is athletic. Sabbath was depressive and dark but Diamond Head is malevolent. Maiden touched on spirituality, and yet they don't even come close to Diamond Head's spark of divinity. The sheer amount of energy and catchiness that the music possesses makes the idea of Lightning to the Nations blaring out someone's car window as he/she's cruising in a metropolitan downtown perfectly plausible. And nevermind the fact that this is "heavy metal". It really isn't. This is a genreless album, and genrelessness is exactly the mark of a quality product. Reading Brian Tatler's autobiography makes it apparent that the only thing that prevented this band from achieving world class popularity was the lack of fortunate business circumstances, and not lack of ideas or talent.
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Objectively, the first half of the album is better. Don't get me wrong, Sweet and Innocent, It's Electric and Helpless are damn good songs, but they don't live up to the standard set by the first four numbers. Regardless, this album should be a definitive mainstay in every music lover's collection.
