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DIAMOND HEAD Issue Animated Music Video For Cover Of Metallica’s ‘No Remorse’
November 30th, 2020

Stourbridge, England-based hard rock / heavy metal band Diamond Head have released an official animated music video for their version of Metallica’s ‘No Remorse’. Created and directed by Costin Chioreanu, the clip can be viewed below.

Diamond Head’s rendidtion of ‘No Remorse’ is featured as a bonus track on the band’s forthcoming Lightning To The Nations 2020 album.

Guitarist and co-founder Brian Tatler said: “I wanted to cover a song from Metallica’s debut album, Kill ’Em All [1983]. “Partly because Metallica covered songs from Diamond Head’s debut album Lightning To The Nations and it felt like things have come full-circle to me. None of the band members knew how to play any of the songs from Kill ’Em All and I eventually decided we should all learn ‘No Remorse’. Then when we got into the rehearsal room, we played ‘No Remorse’ and immediately it just sounded great, it was very ‘Diamond Head’ and it really suited us as a band. Of the four covers we ended up doing, ‘No Remorse’ sounded the best straight away. I’ve seen Metallica live over 20 times and they don’t play ‘No Remorse’ very often, but it’s always great when they do!”

Vocalist and producer Rasmus Bom Andersen added: “Of all the four covers, we almost didn’t have to work on ‘No Remorse’. We all had to learn the parts, and it’s very difficult to play, but in rehearsal it did sound fantastic and we thought: ‘yeah, yeah, it’s gonna be mega’. It was almost surreal when we did it because it just felt incredibly familiar.”

Diamond Head issue a 40th Anniversary re-recording of their 1980 debut album Lightning To The Nations on November 27th, 2020 through Silver Lining Music. The outing will be made available in various formats and can be pre-ordered here.

Tatler commented: “We thought it’d be great to re-record the debut album with this line-up and the modern technology available. The original album was recorded and mixed in a week, and we were very young; still 19-20 years old when it was recorded, so there’s a lot of that youthful energy. But we didn’t have the technique, time, or craftsmanship to record it with the sort of power that we could now. So that was a real thing to savour: the opportunity to go in the studio and record these songs fresh and vibrant.

“Lightning To The Nations 2020 is packed with ideas and riffs, but there is some thought gone into it all and maybe that’s why it still sounds really good now and we’re still having conversations about it.”

Recorded over several sessions between various locations from France to band member home studios, Lightning To The Nations 2020’s central hub was vocalist and producer Rasmus Bom Andersen’s Raw Sound Studio in London. It’s where Tatler and Andy Abberley did the guitars in February and March of 2020. With the COVID-19 chaos striking, Andersen worked on the album between April and July, with Tatler’s watchful ear inspecting final mixes and tweaks in early August before sending off to mastering at Metropolis in London.

Lightning To The Nations 2020 also features four cover renditions included as bonus tracks; Judas Priest’s ‘Sinner’, Led Zeppelin’s ‘Immigrant Song’, Deep Purple’s ‘Rat Bat Blue’ and Metallica’s ‘No Remorse’.

The track listing is as follows:

01. ‘Lightning To The Nations’
02. ‘The Prince’
03. ‘Sucking My Love’
04. ‘Am I Evil?’
05. ‘Sweet And Innocent’
06. ‘It’s Electric’
07. ‘Helpless’
08. ‘No Remorse’ (Metallica cover)
09. ‘Immigrant Song’ (Led Zeppelin cover)
10. ‘Sinner’ (Judas Priest cover)
11. ‘Rat Bat Blue’ (Deep Purple cover)

Diamond Head’s line-up is as follows:

Rasmus Bom Andersen (vocals)
Brian Tatler (guitar)
Andy Abberley (guitar)
Dean Ashton (bass)
Karl Wilcox (drums)

Music videos were released for the re-record versions of ‘It’s Electric’ and ‘Am I Evil?’. Both clips can also be viewed below.

Speaking about ‘It’s Electric’, Tatler said: “Written 15th June, 1978 it was the 45th song Diamond Head ever wrote. It was kind of our version of an AC/DC song. I had noticed that AC/DC had gaps in their riffs so I thought I would do one in that vein and out came ‘It’s Electric’. It was fast and exciting and soon found its way into our live set.

“We had the pleasure of opening for AC/DC in January 1980 and performed ‘It’s Electric’ in the set, I looked over to my left and noticed we were being watched by Bon Scott!

“Metallica covered this song on their 1998 album Garage Inc.. Sean [original vocalist Sean Harris] and I wrote ‘It’s Electric’ in the key of G but Metallica transposed it to F# to make it easier to play. I have played it their way ever since.

“This new recording of ‘It’s Electric’ still has the spark (no pun intended) of the original, but with modern production. So much has changed in recording technology over 40 years that we were bound to take advantage of it in this digital age.”

Regarding ‘Am I Evil?’, Tatler stated: “‘Am I Evil?’ is one of the songs that Metallica covered. I got a call from Lars Ulrich on September 20th, 1986 to say that Metallica were playing that evening as part of the Master Of Puppets tour at the Birmingham Odeon, which was the best venue in the Midlands to see bands. Lars invited me along, so I caught the number nine bus, picked up my backstage pass, and was shown into Metallica’s dressing room. I was then introduced to James Hetfield, Kirk Hammett, and Cliff Burton. Lars suggested that I get up and play ‘Am I Evil?’ on stage with them in the encore. I, of course, agreed and, after watching their amazing set for an hour, I went backstage again where the guitar techs strapped James’ white Flying V onto me. Then Lars ran to the center-vocal mic and introduced me as, ‘the guy who wrote this next song!’ The five of us played ‘Am I Evil?’ up to the fast section then Metallica went into ‘Damage, Inc.’ and I scarpered off stage. It was a brilliant experience!

“It’s been a really great experience to revisit and re-record ‘Am I Evil?’ and the Lightning To The Nations album for 2020. It’s also about time that Diamond Head’s biggest song finally has a video. Thank you to Andy Pilkington [Very Metal Art] for this mini epic.”

Diamond Head’s eighth studio record The Coffin Train was released in May 2019 via Silver Lining Music.

Promotional photograph by Nic Gaunt.