Diamond Head was formed in Stourbridge, England back in 1976 and became one of the most influential bands of the New Wave of The British Heavy Metal. Although they were not very successful commercially the band is known especially for the song “Am I Evil”, which was later on covered by Metallica, band which Dave Mustaine originally was part of. He was fired in the early 80s and started Megadeth, which also was really influenced by groups like Diamond Head.
In an interview with AXS TV (Transcribed by Blabbermouth), the musician explained why the British band is so important to him.
Dave Mustaine explains why Diamond Head is so important to him
“One of the first records I picked… Any self-respecting metal fan that knows anything about Dave Mustaine or Megadeth or Metallica for that matter knows how important Diamond Head was. They were called the natural successors to Led Zeppelin in (the) NME. I mean, that, to me, is quite a compliment. I loved the music because it was riffs and it’s not chords. American songwriters were doing a lot of chord writing and the European and predominantly the people in the United Kingdom were coming up with that riff. And a riff is simply something that is a melody that is played over and over and over and over again. So it has to be really good or it becomes this monotonous droning.”
“Diamond Head was one of the first bands that I saw that played music that I understood that I wanted to play. And when I was in Metallica was when we were basically discovering Diamond Head the most. Lars had spent a lot of time with the guys in Diamond Head. This was such an influential band to me and to the guys in Metallica that there’s seven songs on the back of this record. On side A, it’s ‘Lightning To The Nations’, ‘The Prince’ and ‘Sucking My Love’. We played ‘The Prince’, we played ‘Sucking My Love’. And on side B it’s ‘Am I Evil?’, ‘Sweet And Innocent’, ‘It’s Electric’ and ‘Helpless’. And we played ‘Am I Evil?’, we played ‘It’s Electric’ and we played ‘Helpless’.”
He continued:
“There’s five songs off of this record that we were playing in Metallica. A lot of people thought those were original songs. Because we weren’t rightly going out there and explaining to everybody, ‘Hey, these songs are great. You’re probably gonna think they’re ours and we’re not gonna tell you that. We’re gonna give credit to where credit’s due.’ Nah, nah. We’re gonna be quiet and make you think we’re really great.
“So that’s kind of how Diamond Head came on my radar and why I like these guys. And the singer for Diamond Head that made up all of these great songs in the beginning was a guy named Sean Harris. And Sean and Brian (Tatler) don’t get along anymore. For some reason, I think Sean thought his mom was gonna be a good manager. And she had helped run the band, and that was it,” Dave Mustaine said.
Diamond Head is still active but the only original and classic member of the band is the guitarist Brian Tatler. However, he is now also a member of Saxon and is currently touring and recording more with the.