Diamond Head -O2 Academy Islington London –9th October 2016

Words by: Robert Sutton

Images by: Robert Sutton Photography

www.facebook.com/robertsuttonphotography

To finish up a twenty date UK and European tour Diamond Head played at the O2 Academy Islington London on the 9th October. The tour was a promotion for their new self-titled album, which was released in April this year.

Support for the evening was from ‘New Device’ and ‘KilliT’.

New Device is ( now) a four piece ( were five) UK rock band who formed in 2007 and had their own headline tour earlier in the year in support of their latest EP ‘Devils on the Run’. But tonight they were the opening act and played a half hour set to a reasonably sized audience. Whilst they are a fairly new band their influences are clearly with the sounds from the 80’s playing with a more ‘traditional’ heavy rock sound. I really liked this band and whilst I didn’t know their material they did get my head nodding and I will definitely be checking them out in more detail soon. Great start and warm up act for the evening.

KilliT: Being a ‘new’ name on the scene doesn’t mean that you don’t have any fans…This five-piece band was formed only a year ago but from a group of very seasoned performers. They have now released their first album ‘Shut it Down’ and I must say by the number of people that turned up to see them, they could well have been the co-headline act for this evening. Super set of no-nonsense fast paced heavy metal with an absolutely blinding performance from lead singer Gaz Twist. If you have not seen this band before then make a point of checking them out, they are certainly destined for much bigger things very soon.

Diamond Head: From the very new to the very old!…Diamond Head was originally formed way back in 1976 and was part of the NWOBHM movement back in the day. Now they only have Brian Tatler (guitars) as an original member of the band, but have just released their seventh studio album ( ‘Diamond Head’ ) and this is the first vinyl album that the band has released in the last twenty years!!…and the first to feature new singer Rasmus Bom Andersen, who joined the band in 2014.

They opened the evening’s performance with ‘Borrowed Time’ from the 1982 album of the same name and then played the opening track from the new album, ‘Bones’. They carried on with a mix of the old and the new and played the classics’ ‘The Prince’ ,’Sucking My Love’ and finished their standard set with ‘Am I Evil?’. They promised to play five songs from their new album and they did fulfill this promise to us.

The encore comprised of ‘Shout at The Devil’ from the new album and ‘Sucking My Love’ from their first album before finishing the night off with ‘Streets of Gold’ ( which was originally released as the ‘B’ side from the single ‘Sweet and Innocent’ back in 1980..)

Could this be the resurgence of the great British band Diamond Head? Well from the night’s performance I for one think it might well be and with the new album sounding like Diamond Head of old, I think that this ‘old’ band still has a good few more years left in it…

A fantastic evening of old school heavy metal being played by both newcomers and old hands at the trade. Great stuff. well done guys…

Setlist:-
1: Borrowed Time
2: Bones
3: Lightning to the Nations
4: See you Rise
5: Helpless
6: All the Reasons you Live
7: In the Heat of the Night
8: To Heaven from Hell
9: Knight of the Swords
10: Diamonds
11: The Prince
12:Shoot out the Lights
13: It’s Electric
14: Am I Evil?
Encore:
15: Shout at the Devil
16: Sucking My Love
17: Streets of Gold