Thanks to an interview Birdman of Roargh had with the band’s guitarist, we found out about Diamond Head coming to The Chance in Poughkeepsie, NY months before it was announced. Having influenced so many of our favorites, we both felt we needed to go see this classic NWOBHM band. Without stopping, the venue  is 45 minutes from my house and we hoped to skip the openers as they weren’t anything special. We sadly only skipped one of the three. Normally I review the openers no matter how bad they are but these were so generic that they bleed into each other, which ironically saved them from any trashing . At around 10:30 Diamond head were set to play. We met up with my friend Ryan as well as Rock Fantasy owner Stephen Keeler and our buddy Brian.

Diamond Head

As Diamond Head was setting up I was curious to hear how they would sound live since they have a newer, younger singer named Rasmus Bom Andersen. At the time I had not heard anything from the new stelf-titled album and only really heard their debut and the song “Am I Evil” (yes, I’ve heard the originals and not just the Metallica covers).  Birdman had seen them once before at Heavy MTL 2011, a lineup that included Cryptopsy, Opeth, Anthrax and Morbid Angel.

Diamond Head had a killer sound and Andersen sounded great. The energy was unbelievable. The set list was pretty great too. They played three songs off the new album which all sounded good while the rest of the set was dedicated to their first two albums. Classics such as “Helpless,” “Am I Evil,” “Sucking My Love,” “Shoot out the Lights,” “The Prince” and several more. After the show we met guitarist Brian Tatler and then headed home, although we would return in two days for Carcass!