Hardwired….to
Self-Destruct
came out on 11/18, the same day we saw Diamond Head at the Fish Head Cantina in
Baltimore. HTSD was the first Metallica
album since Death Magnetic, which was released in September 2008, though
the joint venture with Lou Reed, Lulu, dates from November 2011. The third CD has a bunch of extra stuff, some
of which was previously released. I
found it a worthwhile addition at a reasonable price.
Diamond Head. I’d reviewed them earlier, in 2008, as well
as Metallica around the same time. By
now the only original member is guitarist Brian Tatler. They’re originally from Stourbridge, which is
outside Birmingham, England. The band had its original run from 1976-1983,
broke up, reformed from 1990-94, and then again from 2000 to the present. Duncan Scott (drums) and Colin Kimberly
(bass) were only in the ’76-83 version, while singer Sean Harris had been with
some of the more recent reunions but apparently is permanently estranged from
Tatler. The remainder of the current
band is singer Rasmus Born Anderson, rhythm guitarist Andy “Abbz” Abberley,
bassist Dean Ashton, and drummer Karl Wilcox.
Tatler is playing a sunburst Les Paul Standard instead of a Flying V
these days. RBA is young and energetic,
shaved head with a beard – an extra from “Vikings” – and does an excellent job
of copying Sean Harris’ vocals.
They have a new album, self-titled Diamond
Head, which sounds like a competently executed 2016 version of their prior
material. They played about three songs from it. Aside from those songs, and one from Canterbury
(commercial flop third album, a bone thrown to the hardcore fans in the
audience), the set focused on Lightning to the Nations and Living on
Borrowed Time, the first two albums, of which the former provides all the
best songs that Metallica in their excellent judgment saw fit to cover –
including my favorite, “Sucking My Love”.
“Am I Evil” closed the set, with “Streets of Gold” (???) as the
encore.
By the time we got into Metallica – 1985 –
they were an opening act at Donington (Ride the Lightning tour) then for
Ozzy Osbourne (Master of Puppets).
We never saw them in a club, where you can get close up to the
stage. Their club stage would have been
in the San Francisco area back in 1983-84 when Kill ‘Em All was the
newest album.
As
I noted back in 2008, if you remove Iron Maiden, Saxon, and Def Leppard from
the mix of NWOBHM bands – i.e. the three most successful bands which survived
the general demise of the genre itself – you’re left with a few worthy
mentions. Of these, thanks to Metallica,
DH are probably the best known. Angel
Witch, Witchfynde, and Vardis are the next ones down. All three have fairly recent albums, Vardis’ (Red
Eye) being the newest (2016), Angel Witch As Above, So Below (2012)
in the middle, with Witchfynde’s, Play It To Death being the oldest (2008). Generally the “updated” albums sound like a
more modern version of the original material, a balanced blend of them which
tends to work, though naturally we’re going to prefer the original material if
only out of sentimentality. I think that
holds true no matter how well the band does at putting out new material.
Hardwired. By now I’ve heard it three times (twice in
the car, once through the videos).
Looking back at my reviews of St. Anger and Death Magnetic,
the prior two albums, I see that I liked St. Anger more than Load
and Re-Load, and Death Magnetic more than St. Anger. Likewise, I like this one more than Death
Magnetic. James has his massive
riffs, Kirk has his widdly-widdly Satriani solos, I generally ignore Lars &
the bassist, and pay some attention to the clever song titles and growling
vocals.
Tracks; “Hardwired…to Self Destruct”; “Atlas, Rise”; “Now
That We’re Dead”; “Moth Into Flame”; “Dream No More” (Cthulhu tribute!), “Halo
On Fire”; “Confusion” (PTSD tribute); “ManUNKind”;
“Here Comes Revenge”; “Am I Savage?”: “Murder One” (tribute to Lemmy, though no
Hawkwind references - @#^$@#%^); and “Spit Out The Bone”. The tracks seem to have a little bit of step
to them – that extra beat that takes it from just 4/4 to something with a
discernable groove, yet without being overtly funky. Each has its own music video, mostly footage
of the band playing with some sort of gimmick.
Despite the awesome subject matter, “Dream No More” had a fairly
unimpressive video. “Halo on Fire”
features a female Kurt Cobain, somehow.
In fact, they’re all fairly mundane and unimpressive as music videos go –
many of them apparently done by someone who didn’t even bother to read the
lyrics – with one notable exception. The
video for “Murder One”, the Lemmy tribute song, is certainly good – and provides
the missing Hawkwind references. :D
Band. It’s funny, I’m watching these recent music
videos, one per song, and getting a subjective impression of each band
member. JAMES: Your GF’s Dad. LARS:
Your GF’s creepy uncle.
KIRK: Your GF’s ex-BF. ROBERT: Your GF’s mom’s new BF.
However, I suppose I’m a stick in the mud,
because notwithstanding an upward trend in quality after the nadir of Re-Load,
I still prefer the first three albums, with Cliff Burton. Having said that, I will be happy to see
Hetfield & co. in concert if and when they bring Hardwired to our
local concert venue (DC or NYC areas), however large or small that might
be.
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