All Will Be Revealed

10 years between their last album (which was also very incoherent) and 20 years after their classic period, this album has very few traces of the Diamond Head you're thinking about. What does it sound like? part Soundgarden, part Black Label Society, a few nu-metal bits and very little Diamond Head.

The major line up change is that original vocalist and founding member Sean Harris has left, instead we get a one Nick Tart. How does he do? His vocals are upfront and loud, and he himself isn't so good, he's pretty wimpy and weak, and although his upper range is high and reminds me of Chris Cornell at times, he's mostly on "annoying whispery pseudo sexy modern rock frontman" mode.

After the sucky opening track, which features some really annoying distorted vocals, "Give It To Me" pops up, it's a nice little groovy rocker with a nice little solo. The solos on this album are not as shred happy or as interesting as on the early 80s Diamond Head albums, they aren't very plentiful either, but you can still hear that the guitarist knows what he's doing.

The riffs here, however, just fail to stand out, and it's really a shame, because this is a band that was known for the quality of their riffage, I believe the phrase was "There are more good riffs in your average Diamond Head song than in the first 4 Black Sabbath albums". As I am a big Sabbath fanboy I'll have to disagree, but Diamond Head certainly had their share of good riffs. Ranging from simple catchy ones, epic ones and skullcrushing, they knew what to do. On this album, the riffs are your typical bluesy rock riffs, and don't really stand out.

As much as I'd like to deny it, this album just sounds like an average bland hard rock album, with some silly modern overtones, an above average guitarist and below average singer. I wasn't really paying attention to the lyrics, but they seem to be revolving almost exclusively around the typical boy girl rock cliches. The vocals also add to the cheese with plenty of oohhh yeah baby whooaa and knees-please fire-desire rhyming couplets.

Lost at Sea is the first track which sounds like it might be interesting, with it's Am I Evil intro, dark atmosphere and audible bass guitar, but then it just falls again to that typical hard rock silent verse-loud chorus-silent verse formula and ends disappointingly. The title track and Dead or Living are another pair which try to rise above the mediocrity of this album, but they also fail. Dead or Living sounds like it's going somewhere but it just keeps on plodding until it runs out of time.

Drinking Again is a track with potential, it's fast and intense, and sounds kind of like Slave to The Grind. Two minutes intense enough that even the over-repetitive two line chorus sung by the nasal and annoying singer doesn't become too atrocious. Unfortunately, it doesn't get awesome. I was expecting some crazy soloing and over the top vocals to bring life to this track and to this bland album, but it just didn't happen

I mean, the attempts at impressing the audience through intricate and well constructed songwriting failed, so did the air guitar value of this album, so how about abandoning that and going straight forward with everything you got? Meh... I guess it's better this way, when all the songs suck instead of a good one letting you imagine what could of been if...