Diamond Head - Unraveling the mysteries of their CD Discography

I am a big fan of Diamond Head, and I have been buying CDs of theirs for 20 plus years.  I have 19 of them at this point and as you may already know, their discography is a tangled mess of reissues, re-recordings, demos, compilations and live albums.  In this two part article, I have attempted to explain what all of this stuff is and if it's worth buying.  Part 1 covers the studio albums from their classic period - 1980-83, and part 2 will cover everything else.  I wrote this for those people that would like to get some Diamond Head CDs, but they have no idea where to start.  Even our own Scott Waters' entry on Nolifetilmetal is incorrect when it comes to what's on one of his CDs - not that I blame him, because somebody gave him wrong information.

But anyway, if you like Diamond Head, check it out: http://themetalblogofmetal.blogspot.com/2015/04/dead-reckoning.html

By the way, Part 2 is where things get really confusing - there are four different compilations titled Am I Evil, and three of the four have completely different material on them!

Enjoy!

Nice read! Now I know which cd reissues to pick up.

chewie wrote:

Nice read! Now I know which albums to pick up.

Thanks! I'm glad you like it.

I have a comp that I am sure will be in pt.2, Behold The Beginning.

chewie wrote:

I have a comp that I am sure will be in pt.2, Behold The Beginning.

It will be!

I have the Sanctuary version of Lightning To The Nations, great album.
Nice reviews looking forward to part 2.

Thelemech wrote:

I have the Sanctuary version of Lightning To The Nations, great album.
Nice reviews looking forward to part 2.

Thanks! That Sanctuary version is good stuff.

chewie wrote:

I have a comp that I am sure will be in pt.2, Behold The Beginning.

That's the lone Diamond Head album in my collection as well. I used to have another Best of comp, but ditched it. If I recall, it started out ok, but then the songs took a deep downward spiral and I never bothered listening to it.

Nice work on sorting through this mess of a discography. Looking forward to part 2.

Witchfinder wrote:

chewie wrote:

I have a comp that I am sure will be in pt.2, Behold The Beginning.

It will be!

That's the one I have.

Behold the Beginning is all I've got from Diamond Head as well... tho I've listened to a few others on Spotify recently and have been thinking about digging deeper, so I will have to give your guide a look, Witchy.

MetalGuy71 wrote:

chewie wrote:

I have a comp that I am sure will be in pt.2, Behold The Beginning.

That's the lone Diamond Head album in my collection as well. I used to have another Best of comp, but ditched it. If I recall, it started out ok, but then the songs took a deep downward spiral and I never bothered listening to it.

Nice work on sorting through this mess of a discography. Looking forward to part 2.

Thanks!

Fat Freddy wrote:

Behold the Beginning is all I've got from Diamond Head as well... tho I've listened to a few others on Spotify recently and have been thinking about digging deeper, so I will have to give your guide a look, Witchy.

I hope you like it!

Cool stuff...bring on part 2!

I've had "Behold the Beginning" for a very long time, but have not added anything else from Diamond Head. I've listened to various other albums through Spotify/YouTube and realize that I need to pick up the deluxe edition of "Lightning To the Nations." I thought that I knew many of the stories involving Lars and Diamond Head, but I hadn't heard the one in your write up about the deluxe edition. That was good stuff and now I'm going to purchase this album! Thanks for the push...

By the way, I have an interesting bootleg from 1981, called The Lars Show (London 07-10-1981). This was the period where Lars was traveling with the band on their gigs and inspired him to start his own band, which would happen three months later. Though it's a soundboard, there's a constant hiss in the background. Not bad for 1981 though. The only other knock on this show is, "Sucking My Love", which is only a partial recording. I don't remember the link where I downloaded this, but if anyone wants this they can PM me. It's a WinRaR file and you would need a Dropbox account, if you want to open it, due to the size of the file. The only other recourse would be for me to send multiple emails, as one can send up to usually four songs per email. These would be mp3's.

Here's some info on the show.

http://heavymetalrarities.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=12129

metalinmyveins wrote:

I've had "Behold the Beginning" for a very long time, but have not added anything else from Diamond Head. I've listened to various other albums through Spotify/YouTube and realize that I need to pick up the deluxe edition of "Lightning To the Nations." I thought that I knew many of the stories involving Lars and Diamond Head, but I hadn't heard the one in your write up about the deluxe edition. That was good stuff and now I'm going to purchase this album! Thanks for the push...

By the way, I have an interesting bootleg from 1981, called The Lars Show (London 07-10-1981). This was the period where Lars was traveling with the band on their gigs and inspired him to start his own band, which would happen three months later. Though it's a soundboard, there's a constant hiss in the background. Not bad for 1981 though. The only other knock on this show is, "Sucking My Love", which is only a partial recording. I don't remember the link where I downloaded this, but if anyone wants this they can PM me. It's a WinRaR file and you would need a Dropbox account, if you want to open it, due to the size of the file. The only other recourse would be for me to send multiple emails, as one can send up to usually four songs per email. These would be mp3's.

Here's some info on the show.

http://heavymetalrarities.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=12129

That's a great setlist!