Death and Progress - National Bowl Incident

National Bowl Incident

The reunion of Diamond Head did not last. One major contributor to the second fall of the band was during the Death and Progress tour, when Diamond Head opened for Metallica and Megadeth at the National Bowl in Milton Keynes on June 5, 1993, The Almighty was also on the bill. During the show Sean Harris came out dressed as the Grim Reaper, which Brian Tatler reported in the British rock magazine Classic Rock, was Harris' way of saying that NWOBHM was over. They opened with their flagship song, Am I Evil and ended with Helpless; both off their debut Lightning to the Nations, as they thought this would go down well with the Metallica fan base. However, as Diamond Head had not been around for the majority of the previous decade and Metallica had covered both of these songs (Am I Evil was the B-side to Creeping Death and Helpless appeared on The $5.98 E.P.: Garage Days Re-Revisited), much of the crowd thought that Diamond Head were covering Metallica songs. On top of this, their performance was very under par, which was due to the pressure of playing live on MTV, the fact Tatler was suffering from shingles at the time and Diamond Head had had very little rehearsal time prior to the gig. The band split up again and would not reform again until 2000.