DIAMOND HEAD To Release Thunderous 40th Anniversary Re-Recording Of Lightning To The Nations
DIAMOND HEAD To Release Thunderous 40th Anniversary Re-Recording Of Lightning To The Nations Via Silver Lining Music; Single/Video For "It's Electric" Unleashed
Vital, venerated, and vintage, when DIAMOND HEAD first released Lightning To The Nations forty years ago in 1980, few could have predicted the importance it would carry -- and establish -- with regards to heavy metal's new wave and sound. Stacked and packed with riffs, Lightning To The Nations would be one of the prime catalysts for a movement known as the New Wave Of British Heavy Metal (NWOBHM). It would also prove the premier template for a band who would become the biggest rock band on the planet, Metallica. But back then, in their humble Stourbridge, UK home, DIAMOND HEAD had no real idea that the seven songs they had recorded for that debut album would have such a reverberation.
The first single/video to be released, "It's Electric," shows levels of fresh energy and the potency of timeless riffage that will blow the doors and socks off all who hear it. On the song, founding member, lead guitarist/songsmith Brian Tatler, comments: "It was written on the 15th of June 1978; it was the forty-fifth 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!"
"It's Electric" was the first DIAMOND HEAD song that Lars Ulrich ever heard on the 1980 MCA compilation album Brute Force. "It seemed so right, it seemed so fresh, it seemed so effortless and above all, it seemed so fucking special. Three and a half minutes after the needle hit the record on 'It's Electric' by DIAMOND HEAD I was hooked."
"Metallica covered this song on their 1998 album Garage, Inc.," continues Tatler, "Sean 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. "
View DIAMOND HEAD's "It's Electric" video
[Photo by Nic Gaunt]
