by Ed RivadaviaDespite showing great promise with their awesome debut Lightning to the Nations, New Wave of British Heavy Metal stars Diamond Head apparently "lost the plot", as they say in England, changing direction and churning out a couple of mediocre albums before fading into apparent obscurity. Luckily, their sound influenced many bands and their legend kept increasing after the band had broken up, eventually promting them into a reunion. 1993's Death and Progress seems to fulfill what Diamond Head failed to achieve ten years earlier: Combine their heavy metal roots and aggression with a more concise, if slightly commercial style of songwriting, resulting in what can be loosely defined as a melodic hard rock album. Nowhere is this new-found balance more apparent and effective than in "Starcrossed (Lovers of the Night)," which opens with a gorgeous melody before climaxing in a virtual thrash-out. Other stand-outs include "Damnation Street" and "Truckin'," while "Run" is simply a phenomenal hard rock single and serves as a great conclusion (?) to an interesting career.