Diamond Head-Canterbury

Metal Mind
1983/2008

Canterbury is a rather diverse album compared to the band's previous efforts. It's fairly well removed from the hard rock/metal style they had come to be known for. Instead they opted for epics with quite a bit of pageantry and build-up plus some very blatant pop leanings as well. Obviuously they were reaching out with this album and going in different directions, but it's also very easy to see why fans didn't really embrace it. The epics are generally more appealing than the pop songs here, but even they are a bit too dull and tedious to really be that intriguing. Canterbury is one of those albums where try as I might I could not get into it. Ultimately like Celtic Frost's Cold Lake or Helloween's Chameleon it's an example of an established band trying very hard to go way into another direction and failing because the direction is too different and the material just isn't that good. If Diamond Head had taken a few elements here and mixed them more with their existing style then maybe it would have been easier to take, but that's not the case. This re-issue includes to bonus tracks that are both live plus an interview with Andy Peebles. The packaging and bonus tracks are up to the usual high Metal Mind standards.