New album update

As some of you may be aware, in July Diamond Head entered Vigo studios in sunny Walsall to record what we firmly believe to be a fantastic set of new toons which will be our new album with Ras our Danish pastry muncher and new vocalist extraordinaire.

We have lived, breathed and literally bled (more on that later) these songs since January and its a joy to share with you a brief summary of where we are at as of today. With so many people interested in the geeky side of things (me for one, come on I bet half of you follow rig rundowns and all that stuff on you tube,) so please forgive me if I stray into ‘disappeared up my own rear territory once in a while’ I like talking gear and I like boring folk with it !

We have been fortunate over the years to have amassed all manner of guitars/amps/pedals /credit card final demands etc, which although not practical to carry round for tours, become invaluable in a recording situation when you are looking for something a little different, (although Edd’s tuba wasn’t included in the mix!) We are also lucky to have friends who trust us with they’re prized musical instruments, amps and stuff as you can never have too many bits of stuff!! As Guitars go Brian and myself tend to lean towards the tried and tested, and so mainly used 2 Les Pauls standards ’78 and a ’96 (Brian) Les Paul custom ’78 and Suhr standard, I did dust off my Gibson twin neck but at this moment, the 3 hours I spent re-stringing it hasn’t been needed….doh!

We have also used Strats, and Telecasters and a beautiful J200 Gibson acoustic and Brian’s equally beautiful Taylor 314-ce. Edd almost exclusively used his Fender Jazz, although his Sadowsky was always an option unlike his Tuba, we elected to re-amp Edd during the recording process which was a new one on both Brian and myself, basically he played straight into pro tools recording a clean signal which then at a later date was then sent thru an Ampeg svt into an Ashdown 4×12 (and even the blackstar for a few tracks) which was miked up and then recorded, it was like Edd was playing in the other room only he wasn’t even in the same town! Weird but wonderful.

This is where it gets a bit messy… guitar amps, we had the pick of Marshalls, 800, 1973 lead/bass, dsl, slash signature, ENGL screamer, Laney, Blackstar series one, Jetcity 100, Roland JC120, Mesa boogie dual rec and a Diezel VH4. Once we had played with the Diezel for about 30 seconds we knew that would be the main workhorse for the whole album, I loved it so much I’ve since brought one myself. The main cab was an orange 4×12 which was surrounded, no smothered with all manner of microphones.

Karl, as always used one of his fantastic Crockett and Tubbs kits made by a great friend of ours and a brilliant touring buddy Jeff Hendrix. With Ras singing guide vocals thru an SM 58 and Adam Beddow manning the pro tools and beard, the guide tracks of Drums went down basically in a 3 day period despite Karl suffering from a bad back, work horse are the words that spring to mind, Edd also working thru what I believe to be some of his best Diamond Head work to date, taking just a couple of days to do his parts.
Then, in 3/4 day bursts Brian and myself would slowly tick off our to do list song by song, rhythm tracks/lead tracks (this is where I put so much into one solo that I literally made my finger bleed ouch!) atmospheric weird noise track etc, sometimes with no added flavours and other times using all kinds of pedals from David Fosters massive collection, using pedals like a Drop pedal, Octaver, Zvex box of rock and lots more including the rack mounted Dunlop cry baby which Brian loved.

At this moment in time Ras is working thru his vocal to do list, ticking each song off as he completes them at his own studio in London.

So that’s where we are at, we know its been too long since the last Diamond Head album, but we are convinced you’ll think it’s been worth the wait.
Abbz