Lightning To The Nations 2020

To mark its 40th anniversary Diamond Head had decided to re record the classic debut album with its current lineup and the modern technology available. The plan was to give the songs a fresh approach with how they have developed live over 40 years and produce them with a modern sound and punch.

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With the main production and recording taking place at Raw Sound Studio we dived into this well knowing that it was a dangerous road to go down as we would be touching on something very respected and treasured by fans and critics alike. Respecting the legacy and history has always been the key focal point in working with and producing Diamond Head and this was the ultimate point of balancing respect and progress. Music is like a time machine and it was clear that we were messing with time itself here in the revamping of these classics. So tread delicately we did. Strange that even being in the band itself you still have to revere the status of the album and songs and be fearful that you are touching on holy ground for some people.

Nevertheless production went ahead with recording drums at Karl's studio in France in late Jan before all hell broke loose and guitars would be later be tracked at Raw Sound in Feb and March before the apocalypse arrived with COVID bringing a full stop to much of life and indeed the live music industry. May to June were all bout adding tons vocals and additional guitar layers for a BIG sound. Only good thing about the lockdown was it gave us a lot of time to work this record hard while touring was on hold.

By the end of July the album was finished with Bri coming down to the studio to review mixes before being ready for mastering at Metropolis studios with John Davis. We were gutted that COVID made it impossible to be on site for the mastering as thats traditionally been a nice way to finish off many months of hard labour. Needless to say we were ecstatic with how crisp, big and punchy this album sounded once we got the masters back. With vinyl also having its resurgence we had the master lacquer cut by John as well and the test pressing that recently can through sound mind blowing. It's an exciting time with this record being released in November and few singles coming out between then and now so keep the eyes and ears open for videos and announcements.

The album is due for release on November 20th, 2020 and you can pre order the album here on various formats including a very special edition blue marble vinyl https://smarturl.it/DHLTTN2020