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Diamond Head returned to North America in August/Sept for a string of dates that included Canada, arriving in Brooklyn NY on September 11th at Saint Vitus.  If you don’t already know, but should just because how often Metallica name drop the band, or play a Diamond Head song live, are part of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal in the late ‘70s/early ‘80s. They released three highly regarded albums at the time… Lightning To The Nations (1980), Borrowed Time (1982), and Canterbury (1983).  Led by co-founding member/guitarist Brian Tatler, with longtime drummer Karl Wilcox (1991–1994, 2002–). the current lineup is Rasmus Bom Andersen on vocals – who sang on the 2016 self-titled album, Andy Abberley on second guitar (who was absent from these run of North American dates), with newest member Dean Ashton on bass.  

Prior to the show I had the opportunity to speak with the legendary guitarist Brian Tatler for a few minutes while he was warming up.  Note to readers, going into the spur of the moment talk I had no idea guitarist Andy was not with them, so the reason for his absence did not come up in conversation.  

 
This is what Brian had to say…”We don’t often tour in America, did some dates last year, so figured might as well get out there and do a run by ourselves, with local openers. We have the new self-titled album that just came out in 2016, and we play from it ‘Bones’, ‘Diamond’, and ‘Set My Soul On Fire’.  All fit in real well with our classic sound and songs from the early ‘80s. The fans also have said this, and our new singer Rasmus Bom Andersen, who is on the recent album, is a nice compliment to Diamond Head’s history. I’m real happy with his vocals, and stage presence – he brings a lot of energy, as so does Dean.  It helps having some younger blood in the band.  We are working on some new songs, with this lineup, to record for an album next year. 

“By Metallica covering classics ‘Am I Evil?’, ‘Helpless’, ‘The Prince’ and ‘It’s Electric’, it helps us…sure.  And I see they continue to play or two of those songs when they tour, even this past year. Right? We are grateful for the attention.  How much has it affected our fanbase? In America we have always had an underground following.  Same goes for our shows here, smaller crowds, few hundred or so, but it’s the dedicated long time listeners. Its great and I still get a charge out of playing to them. When we did the tour with Raven in 2013 that was fun, but having another NWOBHM band with us with the same fanbase really didn’t change much in the attendance.  Overseas, we fair better with crowd sizes, especially when it comes to the big European festivals.  Thank you to all the fans and longtime support for Diamond Head. Look for the new album sometime next year and more touring.”