''Borrowed Time'' is the second studio album by British heavy metal band Diamond Head. It was recorded in 1981 and released in 1982, reaching Number 24 on the

UK Albums Chart The Official Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales and (from March 2015) audio streaming in the United Kingdom. It was published for the first time on 22 July 1956 and is compiled every week by the Official Charts C ...

. In a 2008 interview, guitarist Brian Tatler said that this was his favourite period with Diamond Head and that the band "seemed to be getting somewhere after six years of building".

Background

This was the band's first major label released after being signed to

MCA Records MCA Records was an American record label owned by MCA Inc., which later became part of Universal Music Group. Pre-history MCA Inc., a powerful talent agency and a television production company, entered the recorded music business in 1962 wit ...

in 1981. As this was their first album under a major label, the album was much cleaner and better produced. However, some say that MCA was the wrong label for Diamond Head, which is one of the contributions to their downfall. Some have also questioned the necessity for "

Am I Evil? "Am I Evil?" is a song by British heavy metal band Diamond Head. Released on the band's 1980 debut album ''Lightning to the Nations'', it remains the band's signature song''.'' The song was written by lead vocalist Sean Harris and guitarist ...

" and "Lightning to the Nations" to be included on the album, since they had already appeared on the band's debut album, ''

Lightning to the Nations ''Lightning to the Nations'' is the debut album by British Heavy metal music, heavy metal band Diamond Head (English band), Diamond Head. The album was recorded in 1979 (after the 1977 and 1979 demos) and released in 1980 through Happy Face Re ...

''. Although the reason for this was that their first album was only meant as a demo with the idea of ''Borrowed Time'' being their first official album. However, things have not quite worked out that way, with the former becoming their most notable work to date. Originally, ''Borrowed Time'' was only released on CD in Japan, making it a highly collectible item. Although on 15 October 2008, it was released by

Metal Mind Productions Metal Mind Productions (MMP) is a Polish record label founded in 1987. The label focuses on rock and heavy metal. MMP is also publisher of ''Metal Hammer'', the largest and the oldest heavy metal magazine. As a concert agency, it organises Met ...

on CD format, with bonus tracks. However, this was limited to 2,000 copies. The release contains

B-side The A-side and B-side are the two sides of phonograph records and cassettes; these terms have often been printed on the labels of two-sided music recordings. The A-side usually features a recording that its artist, producer, or record compan ...

s, such as "Dead Reckoning", which were previously unavailable on CD. However,

Geffen Records Geffen Records is an American record label established by David Geffen and owned by Universal Music Group through its Interscope Geffen A&M Records imprint. Founded in 1980, Geffen Records has been a part of Interscope Geffen A&M since 1999 and h ...

have now issued the album on general release. The cover features a lavish

Rodney Matthews Rodney Matthews (born 6 July 1945) is a British illustrator and conceptual designer of fantasy and science-fiction. Career Trained at the West of England College of Art, Matthews worked in advertising for Plastic Dog Graphics before turning ...

illustrated gatefold sleeve, based on the album's

Elric of Melniboné Elric of Melniboné is a fictional character created by English writer Michael Moorcock and the protagonist of a series of sword and sorcery stories taking place on an alternative Earth. The proper name and title of the character is Elric VII ...

theme, which was the most expensive sleeve commissioned by MCA at that time.

Musical style

This album saw the band move away from all-out heavy

riff A riff is a repeated chord progression or refrain in music (also known as an ostinato figure in classical music); it is a pattern, or melody, often played by the rhythm section instruments or solo instrument, that forms the basis or accompani ...

s and towards softer and more progressive songs, such as "In the Heat of the Night" and "Don't You Ever Leave Me", which was well-received by fans, as the former has remained a regular in the live set list to date.

Reception

The album managed to get to No. 24 in the UK album charts, becoming the band's first and only album to chart. The band went on to perform a full scale UK arena tour, performing large venues such as London's

Hammersmith Apollo The Hammersmith Apollo, currently called the Eventim Apollo for sponsorship reasons, and formerly known as the Hammersmith Odeon, is a live entertainment performance venue, originally built as a cinema called the Gaumont Palace. Located in Ham ...

. The album failed to live up to prior expectations as the band's more commercial take to their music turned out to be a disappointment to critics.

Track listing

Personnel

Per the liner notes *Sean Harris – vocals, backing vocals, percussion,

vocoder A vocoder (, a portmanteau of ''voice'' and ''encoder'') is a category of speech coding that analyzes and synthesizes the human voice signal for audio data compression, multiplexing, voice encryption or voice transformation. The vocoder was ...

*Brian Tatler – guitars, backing vocals *Colin Kimberley – bass, Taurus bass pedals, backing vocals *Duncan Scott – drums, percussion

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Borrowed Time (Album) Diamond Head (band) albums MCA Records albums 1982 albums Albums produced by Mike Hedges Albums with cover art by Rodney Matthews