Borrowed Time

Posted: Sat Jan 06, 2007 11:17 am

Hifi got the album thread thing going, so I thought I'd continue down the line with Borrowed Time. So, what does everyone think of it?

I personally think that it is a great album. Although DH set themselves a very hard task of trying to better the piece of genius that is Lightening to the Nations (I think that they are back in the same possition at the moment following up AWBR, it's going to be hard to top. However, I sense the band are quite confident and I feel that they have gone that one better Very Happy

).

Anyway, back to Borrowed Time.

The album is fantastic and the shining gem has to be Call Me (which I really hope has made it's way into the new set list). That song really strikes a chord with me being at uni, having to clear out of Leicester during the holidays and leaving my gf and all my friends - "To tell the truth I don't want to go, So say you want me to stay, You are more than all to me, This is no game that I play" - just great.

Then there is of course the title track and In the heat of the night, which I am sure any songwriter would be proud to call their own.

In fact, there is not a bad song in there. Just one of those albums that you can put on and rock out to every track! Although, I do wonder why they felt the need to have Am I Evil and Lightening to the Nations in the track list, but can you listen to those track too often?

What does anyone else think?

Joined: 05 Oct 2006 Posts: 209 Location: Fla., U.S.A.

Thanks for picking up where I’ve been slacking off lately! Laughing

Anyway, and I think I’ve mentioned this before, I came into Diamond Head late even though I’m more than old enough that I should have discovered and been into these guys back in the day. I am still listening to a lot of older albums (by many bands/artists) for the first time. Most I at least know their place in music history, which is the reason why I’m finally checking them out, out of curiosity. What I tend to do now is forget history, forget making “comparisons” and listen to the album I’m hearing in the here and now, or “in a vacuum”. Also, I’m in a phase where I’m more into the music itself than lyrics. I understand and appreciate lyrics having meaning for people and impacting their feelings. I’ve been there too. But I’m not at that place, for the most part, right now. So that’s my frame of mind when I’m playing “music critic/reviewer”

Let’s call this more my “random thoughts” than a real “review”.

Borrowed Time, I’m trying to remember if I got the copy I have on vinyl (from the expensive a$$ used record warehouse in St. Pete) first or the copy on CD (one of those MCA Japanese imports I think are still floating around new) first. I must have been in one of my not so unusual strange moods the first time I listened to BT because I remember being kind of disappointed with it. I guess I was expecting or more accurately wanting something like more of what I’d heard on Lightning To The Nations (I have the Metal Blade release). Silly me ...

I didn’t listen to the BT album again for awhile then recently began revisiting it again. Now I like and appreciate the album much more. What strikes me upon more careful examination of the music is the maturity and complexity. The new material on BT is definitely a step up from the band’s previous songs.

I realize this is a band playing and the band as a whole is great together on BT but I have to mention that Brian’s guitar playing on this album is absolutely amazing, if not smoking. Ok, I’ve openly admitted before that I’m a half tone deaf guitar illiterate but when I find myself wrapped up and losing myself in someone’s guitar playing, that’s what says to me that person plays very well.

In The Heat Of The Night is simply a great tune. Ok, I have to do a dreaded “comparison” thing here. For awhile I was favoring the more recent version of this song with the current band lineup (live at the Astoria). Listening to the original band lineup performing the song on BT and live at Reading, that’s great too. In this case it’s a real toss up and it’s all good. In The Heat Of The Night was a great song in the past and it’s still a still a great song now.

To Heaven From Hell, again illustrating musical maturity and complexity.

The first time I heard Call Me I saw the video on VH-1 Classic a few years ago. At the time I had no idea there were any Diamond Head videos, let alone one that would turn up on VH-1 Classic (in the U.S.A.). I was happy to see a DH video but initially found Call Me a little disappointing. Not that I thought it was a bad song. It’s really not. It struck me as something the band came up with (I speculated) because maybe their record company was screaming at them for something that sounded like a single and that’s what they came up with. Again, not that they did a bad job coming up with “something that sounds like a single” rather than one of their usual wonderful 6-8 minute mini epics. I couldn’t help noticing the more “poppy” lyrics (as opposed to the usual dark/sword/sorcery/Medieval type stuff), music not being as complex, and shorter song length.

In the present, the re-recordings of Lightning To The Nations/Am I Evil? might seem a bit inexplicable. Knowing what I know, in 1982 the only other recordings of these songs available, as far as I know, would have been on Happy Face, basically an indy/DIY job. There wasn’t all the compilation releases floating around then which are available now. I can understand the band certainly wanting to record Am I Evil?, their signature tune, for a major label release. Unfortunately, and strictly IMO, I personally find something slightly “off” to my ears with these re-recordings that I can’t put my finger on. I can listen to them, listening to the BT album as a whole but individually I prefer the earlier recordings of these songs.

Borrowed Time I just love the complexity of the music which I can wrap myself up and lose myself in.

Don’t You Ever Leave Me, another DH mini-epic full of musical complexity and surprising for its bluesy feel, especially Brian’s amazing little blues jam near the end of the song. This shows Diamond Head of being capable of a variety of musical styles, not just heavy rock.

All in all, yes, Borrowed Time is a great Diamond Head album!

Joined: 30 Jun 2007 Posts: 3

I can remember my friend Hywel and I bunking off school and waiting outside the Swansea branch of John Menzies on the morning of its release (Hywel had already got me grounded for ever for persuading me to slope off to Bristol to see DH the year before).

We were amazed at the packaging - no one had had a sleeve / poster /liner like it, not even Maiden or Saxon - which built up the excitement even more... and I'm sorry to say it fell a little flat when I actually played it.

The recording felt restrained as tho something was holding the band back, but it only took a couple of listens to buy into what the lads were doing. This was musicianship/writing on a whole other level from contemporary bands... BT more than any other album shows the influence of Rush on the NWOBHM (Shiva's Firedance comes a distant second).

Stand out track for me is 'In the Heat of the Night' which is powerfully atmospheric and has one of the all time great HM lyrics.

Joined: 05 Oct 2006 Posts: 209 Location: Fla., U.S.A.

Welcome to the forum, Ceri!

I'm so glad to see people posting in the album threads. Very Happy