Lightning to the Nations

It's amazing that this album hasn't been reviewed more. What's even more amazing is that I'm actually drawn to review it when typically, I'm better suited to reviewing movies. But then again, maybe because it's so well known as a classic by everybody is the reason it hasn't been reviewed...

But, not until this latest listen do I realize just how influential this one album has been. Go ahead an listen to it. If you're a Thrash fan, you'll hear a lot of familiar stuff.

Hear that? That's Metallica.
Right there? Megadeth.
That solo? Testament.

That riff? Oh hell, Metallica, Megadeth and Exodus all tapped that one. That's Sucking My Love--and these three bands? They all snatched that one up. Oh, and that solo over there, tucked into Sucking My Love--latter day Corrosion of Conformity seems to have borrowed that (circa America's Volume Dealer). As a matter of fact, it sounds like Sucking My Love probably has more bastard children out there than Gene Simmons. Megadeth used up that main riff as recently as on The World Needs A Hero. I guess at the time, Dave Mustaine's hero was Diamond Head. Because he also used riffs from Am I Evil on that album. I guess if you don't want to write anything new, you might as well write familiar, right?

You know, for an album from 1980, this one really seems ahead of it's time. But then again, maybe it's not ahead of it's time. Maybe it came along right when it should have. And maybe the bands that followed just didn't advance enough. Maybe it's a painful visual of just how stagnant a lot of otherwise excellent 80's Thrash Metal really was. I mean, the riffs heard on this album were used over and over throughout by Thrash bands every bit as often as they took riffs from Motorhead or Venom (apparently OverKill and Slayer were more keen on these two, respectively). Lightning to the Nations/The White Album is so easy to listen to--because it's so familiar because everyone who had a Thrash Metal band in the 80's must have yanked something off here for their own use. It's actually kind of depressing. Here all this time I thought I was getting some kick-ass Thrash Metal and in reality, I was getting pre-used, hacked to bits material from Diamond Head. My whole life is a lie.

At any rate, the overall feel and atmosphere and production of this album is kind of like an early atmospheric Motorhead with a dash of Led Zeppelin. The vocals aren't the high-pitched screeching that followed in a lot of classic-styled Heavy Metal bands in the 80's... or that Hair Band crap, but it's not heavy or gruff like Motorhead. The vocals have a clear influence in more simple Rock and Roll (think maybe early pre-Bruce Iron Maiden or Def Leppard for a mild similarity), and much of the lyrics seem to follow suit, although there are a lot of relatively standard "Heavy Metal" lyrics on the album as well. But the music itself, is very much ye olde (but back then, quite new) British Heavy Metal--just with much catchier riffs than I'm used to hearing from that time.

Overall, not every song on here is truly excellent. But none are bad. The best are easily Helpless (my personal favorite), Am I Evil?, The Prince, and Sucking My Love. Am I Evil and Sucking My Love have each got to be among the most ripped-off songs in existence. The first three were all covered by Metallica; in fact, no one seems to have ripped off this band more. Ride the Lightning ~ Lightning to the Nations...? Even if you've never heard Diamond Head before, you've most likely heard the riffs from these songs. Metallica's Jump in the Fire, Megadeth's When and 1000 Times Goodbye, ... I can't remember the Exodus track(s) off-hand...

When they say Thrash Metal was inspired partially by NWOBHM, they mean this band. Whoever "they" may be. They may have borrowed Motorhead's attitude and Venom's evil, but they used Diamond Head's riffs and solos to glue it all together.

Anyway, it seems that Lightning to the Nations and It's Electric are the weakest tracks, which suffer only in that they don't carry the epic scope or feeling of overall grandeur that the previously mentioned four tracks all have in spades. Sweet and Innocent falls between these two album extremes of "Brilliant" and "Not so Impressive, But Still Decent."

So:
Lightning to the Nations: 4/5
The Prince: 5/5
Sucking My Love: 5/5
Am I Evil?: 5/5
Sweet and Innocent: 4.5/5
It's Electric: 4/5
Helpless: 5/5

So now you're going, "Well hey, dickhead, if there are only 4 out of 7 songs that really rock, why are you giving it a 90? Dickhead." I went as high as I did, in part, out of the sheer influence this album carries and in part because those four awesome tracks are truly excellent, catchy, Metal music. On top of which, about 75% of the album's running time is made up of excellent music, and the other stuff isn't bad, it's just not anywhere near as impressive as those best four songs.

This should be in every Metalhead's collection. Especially all us Thrashers.