[2016-11-25] Diamond Head "Lightning To The Nations: White Album (Deluxe Edition)" 2CD set (Hear No Evil UK)

Linda · **Posted:** Sun Sep 25, 2016 7:34 pm

Description
Despite being at the forefront of the burgeoning “New Wave Of British Heavy Metal” scene (or NWOBHM) in 1979, alongside Iron Maiden, Def Leppard and Saxon, and spearheaded by Geoff Barton and the Sounds weekly music paper, Diamond Head were unable to secure a major label contract. Seeing their heavy metal and hard rock peers reap rewards and chart success, Diamond Head eventually released their debut LP independently on their own Happy Face Records in 1980, available for the princely sum of £3.50, sold via an advert in Sounds and at gigs. Without a title or track list, the now highly collectable “The White Album” LP was issued in a plain white LP jacket, with merely a band signature to identify it.

In many respects, the songs and music on this highly influential LP are better known than the album itself, as Metallica would include no less than four cover versions from this seven track album on their “Garage Inc.” album; ‘It’s Electric’, ‘Helpless’, ‘The Prince’ plus the band’s most famous and enduring track, ‘Am I Evil?’. This would in turn introduce the band to a younger and larger audience.

Although there had subsequently been a number of inferior versions of this album reissued over the years, either based on remixes or audio dubbed from vinyl, this version, originally assembled in 2011, was the first time that the original master tapes were used for a CD reissue. Before signing to MCA records for 1982’s “Borrowed Time” LP, they also released a number of rare singles and EPs, which make up the tracks on disc two.

As well as plenty of memorabilia, plus exclusive photographs from the band’s own archive, the booklet includes an essay from Classic Rock’s Dave Everley.

Diamond Head are still going strong today, having released a new, self-titled album in 2016.

Tracklist
[CD1: The White Album]
1. Lightning To The Nation
2. The Prince
3. Sucking My Love
4. Am I Evil?
5. Sweet And Innocent
6. It's Electric
7. Helpless

[CD2: The Singles]
1. Shoot Out The Lights
2. Streets Of Gold
3. Waited Too Long
4. Play It Loud
5. Diamond Lights
6. We Won't Be Back
7. I Don't Got

Amazon USA
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01LZKMT7C/?tag=imwan-20

Amazon UK
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01LZKMT7C/?tag=imwan-21

Invisible Pedestrian · **Joined:** 24 Sep 2006 **Posts:** 26163

Any more news with this one?

Linda · **Posted:** Thu Oct 20, 2016 7:35 pm

The first post now has the cover image, description and tracklist.

Invisible Pedestrian · **Joined:** 24 Sep 2006 **Posts:** 26163

I believe this has been pushed back to Dec. 2

Linda · **Posted:** Sat Nov 26, 2016 11:19 pm

Invisible Pedestrian wrote:

I believe this has been pushed back to Dec. 2

No, it came out in the UK yesterday as scheduled.

Invisible Pedestrian · **Joined:** 24 Sep 2006 **Posts:** 26163

Linda wrote:

Invisible Pedestrian wrote:

I believe this has been pushed back to Dec. 2

No, it came out in the UK yesterday as scheduled.

Amazon link says Dec. 2-must be the US release which is the one I ordered.

Linda · **Posted:** Sun Nov 27, 2016 1:58 am

Invisible Pedestrian wrote:

Linda wrote:

Invisible Pedestrian wrote:

I believe this has been pushed back to Dec. 2

No, it came out in the UK yesterday as scheduled.

Amazon link says Dec. 2-must be the US release which is the one I ordered.

Yes. That's when the UK release is scheduled to become available at Amazon USA. (It's not getting a domestic release.)

JosephC · **Joined:** 27 Jan 2011 **Posts:** 2654

I'm very happy with this one. Andy Pearce remaster. Highly recommended. Would have liked to see them include the shortened version of "Helpless" from the "Shoot Out the Lights" single, outside of that they couldn't have done a better job with this reissue.

Invisible Pedestrian · **Joined:** 24 Sep 2006 **Posts:** 26163

This is indeed very good remastering and no surprise, seeing as it's Andy Pearce.

Any chance the other albums will be getting the treatment from Hear No Evil?

Are the previous issues decent enough of those albums?

JosephC · **Joined:** 27 Jan 2011 **Posts:** 2654

I'm not really a Diamond Head expert so I can't comment on the rest of their albums. From what I've heard over the years the second album (Borrowed Time) is worth a listen but the rest of their stuff isn't that great.

This is my first experience with Hear No Evil. Checked their website and their catalog was a bit bigger than I expected...I have the original releases of 16 titles they've reissued but I'm not interested in buying any of those again. Hopefully they'll get the rights to a couple interesting titles that I don't already have.

Invisible Pedestrian · **Joined:** 24 Sep 2006 **Posts:** 26163

JosephC wrote:

I'm not really a Diamond Head expert so I can't comment on the rest of their albums. From what I've heard over the years the second album (Borrowed Time) is worth a listen but the rest of their stuff isn't that great.

This is my first experience with Hear No Evil. Checked their website and their catalog was a bit bigger than I expected...I have the original releases of 16 titles they've reissued but I'm not interested in buying any of those again. Hopefully they'll get the rights to a couple interesting titles that I don't already have.

Hear No Evil is really an extension of Rock Candy via Cherry Red so that's why everything is so well done and Andy Pearce is involved.

I have all their Alcatrazz remasters, 2 Deep Purple ones and this Diamond Head one.

On the way I have the 2 Detective albums they just did.

I want to get the Motorhead and Accept releases they did and maybe the Uriah Heep ones but those already sounded fine to me and were recent albums.

The Cherry Red website lists far more than Hear No Evil does for some reason. Way more in fact.

Mark MN · 13 Aug 2012

Hear No Evil also did those old Graham Bonnet discs last year. I bought them and they sound kickass.

[2016-11-25] Diamond Head "Lightning To The Nations: White Album (Deluxe Edition)" 2CD set (Hear No Evil UK)

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