Metallica re-read Diamond Head live with Brian Tatler

Last night, June 26th, Metallica returned to face the music of the historic British metal group Diamond Head. James Hetfield and his associates were on stage at the Tons of Rock festival in Oslo, Norway, when they invited Brian Tatler, guitarist and co-founder of the original Stourbridge band, to join them on stage.

The song re-covered by the Four Horsemen was “Am I Evil?”, which they had already covered as the b-side of the 1984 single “Creeping Death”. Since then, according to setlist.fm, Metallica have performed Diamond’s song Head live 791 times.

In a 2022 interview with “Metal Pilgrim”, taken up by Blabbermout, Brian Tatler stated that it is thanks to the reinterpretation of Hetfield and his associates that Diamond Head managed to stay afloat: “I think that if Metallica hadn’t made a Diamond Head cover, I should have looked for work elsewhere”, the guitarist declared: “I think it would have been more difficult to keep the band going without the Metallica cover and the introduction of Diamond Head to their fan base The opportunities we get now wouldn’t be there without that Metallica connection. So I’m eternally grateful.”