Video: DIAMOND HEAD Performs At France's RAISMES FEST

Fan-filmed video footage of DIAMOND HEAD‘s September 10 performance at Raismes Fest in Raismes, France can be seen below.

DIAMOND HEAD‘s first album of new material in eight years was released on April 22. Titled “Diamond Head”, the disc features an exciting new talent in singer Rasmus Bom Andersen.

In 2014, DIAMOND HEAD invited London-based, Danish-born Ras to join the band. Together they completed a European tour, which included appearances at Hard Rock Hell and Headbangers Open Air in Germany. The spark of creativity led the band to start working on the new album in January 2015.

Brian Tatler, founder of DIAMOND HEAD, said: “When we began talking with Ras about making a new record, he said we should write the songs as a band just like DIAMOND HEAD did at the beginning of our career. There’s no substitute for writing together in the same room. We spark each other off and create something far bigger than we could have done individually.”

Brian continued: “Ras has certainly renewed the energy within the band. I had no interest in doing another record, but after working with Ras on the European tour, that all suddenly changed. I wanted to make a record with him. He’s a confident singer and he’s not trying to fill anyone’s shoes.”

Speaking about the new DIAMOND HEAD album’s musical direction, Brian said: “This new album has an echo of the early albums, but I always try to push our music forward somewhere new if possible.”

Rasmus added: “All in all, this album was made with the band’s first fans foremost in mind, from start to finish. We wanted to write songs that would have ties to the best parts of the all the previous albums. We feel we have achieved what we set out to do and we hope everyone will hear and feel the DIAMOND HEAD spirit through this new eponymous record.”

In general, the album lyrics focus on political and environmental themes, specifically warning that our world is in many ways leaning towards self-destruction. The opening and closing songs encapsulate these themes, while the body of the album explores subtopics in more depth, along with songs dealing with lighter subjects that aren’t so heavy on the heart.

In a recent interview with EonMusic, Andersen recalled his “ruthless” approach to songwriting for “Diamond Head”. He said: “I came in with some fresh ears, and almost like a producer, picked out the best bits. So when Brian said, ‘Here’s a lot of riffs, what do you think?’ I was, like, ‘That’s fantastic, that’s DIAMOND HEAD‘, or, ‘That doesn’t tie to DIAMOND HEAD, so let’s run with these ones and see what else we can do.’

“I was quite ruthless. Brian came back to me after that conversation and said, ‘That took a lot of balls for you to tell me that.’ We ended up with this checklist to write this album according to.”

Andersen added: “It really helped us to nail down what’s going to make it to the album, and what’s not going to make it to the album. It just made the politics of writing together as a band a really easy experience.”