DIAMOND HEAD – the Stourbridge, England born New Wave Of British Heavy Metal pioneers – return to the world stage with a new album, set for release May 24th via Silver Lining Music. The Coffin Train is at once fresh and exuberant while also being a stone-cold classic slice of oldschool heavy metal excellence. Is it packed with the sort of riff-fueled power that founding member Brian Tatler led a genre and influenced the odd band or two with? It’s electric for sure… and then some.
With a mean driving riff that resembles a thunderous machine gun, the album’s second single, “Death By Design,” is a powerful track. It is a song that takes the listener along for one hell of a ride which promises to put the fire back in the spirit of anyone daring to jump aboard.
Notes Tatler, “‘Death By Design’ is the second song from the new DIAMOND HEAD album The Coffin Train. This song began life in my home studio in 2015. I had the opening top E string riff and tried to build a song around it. I gave a demo to [vocalist] Ras [Rasmus Bom Andersen] and he added a new verse riff. We worked on the arrangement and made another demo early 2017 before trying it out in rehearsal. It has a four-bar guitar solo that was recorded in a hotel room on Ras’s laptop while on tour, another first for DIAMOND HEAD!”
Adds Andersen: “Contrary to the title, ‘Death By Design’ is not a song about death but about life. It’s about choosing life, your path and on your terms. It’s saying ‘no’ to rotting in the giant hamster wheel and drowning in pre-conceived notions of ‘the good life’ checklists, so that when you’re done and heading down into the fire, you can wear that big smile saying you did it your way and had one hell of a ride.”
On the video production, he continues: “We’ve shot the most videos the band has ever shot for an album launch. The music video for ‘Death By Design’ was a tough one to shoot right. We don’t exactly have Hollywood budgets for the production, but our director on this song, Russell Cherington, has been a massive support in shooting a rather fantastic video. We wanted to create something that resembled a descent into hell and follow the concept from the lyrics. We hope everyone will enjoy the second single and video and that it might inspire them to live life on their terms.”
