Is there a shelf life for bands putting out new music? Once you hit 40, 50…even 60 years I get the drive to keep putting out fresh music, but to my ears it overwhelmingly results in bands I love releasing bland, toothless music assembled via committee. Recent output by bands like Deep Purple and the Rolling Stones have left me underwhelmed, the tunes lacking any bite. So when I heard Uriah Heep were not only still kicking but releasing new music I was intrigued but honestly not hopeful. And yet here we are with Chaos & Colour, the best Deep Purple album Deep Purple never released, and a fantastic modern version of what the band was doing in their prime. It’s heavy, it rocks hard, and best of all the band still sounds hungry 50 years on.

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It was inevitable that I would come back to Uriah Heep. More than any other discovery in the past few years, they’ve been the band I’ve been drawn to the most: a potent proto-metal outfit with progressive tendencies and just some killer, killer tracks. I thought the trilogy of Look at Yourself, Demons & Wizards, and The Magician’s Birthday would be enough (all reviewed here), but both older and newer albums have ensnared me just as deeply. So the plan this week is to finish off the recent acquisitions starting with the American version of their debut, simply titled here as Uriah Heep.

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I’m as surprised as you. Well, maybe not so surprised: it’s a late Friday night, I’m already a few whiskeys in, and listening to the great HiFi Dream Machine. It was inevitable Uriah Heep was going to come back up. A few months back I picked up from my local record shop the final entry in the band’s trilogy of great records from 1971-1972 The Magician’s Birthday, so what better time than now to complete my Heep triumvirate? Follow me down the rabbit hole as I go track by track, drinking more whiskey than I ought and reveling in the sounds of the 70s. Who’s with me?

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It’s another late night. We’ve switched from scotch to red wine, but we’re ready to continue down the track by track path of the monster that is 70s hard rock. Uriah Heep may have solidified their classic lineup and earned their biggest hit to date with “Easy Living'” on 1972’s Demons and Wizards, but the real hard rock punch came a year earlier with the mesmerizing Look at Yourself. The progressive side hasn’t yet fully come into its own; instead we get pounding guitars and organs and an overall more metal release. I was thrilled to find a great copy – a first US pressing at my local shop Needle + Groove for a song. A few listens convinced me of its merit, and for a while I was happy to say it was my favorite of their releases I had heard to date. Now that I had a serious dive into the followup, let tear this sucker up track by track and still if my assessment still holds true.

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Okay ladies and gentlemen…I have had more than a few drinks, the stereo is turned up loud, and I’m ready to continue down the path of classic 1970s hard rock, as initiated all the way back in July of this year when I waxed poetic about the Sea of Tranquility YouTube channel. Let’s keep the train rolling with some of the vinyl I picked up over the last few months, starting with a band I knew by name but was woefully ignorant of musically…the mighty Uriah Heep and their dynamic fourth album Demons and Wizards. I think at this points I’m enough sheets into the wind to do more of a reaction review, even though I’ve heard the record a number of times already. Flare your pant bottoms and grab your wicker basket of wine…it’s time to do this.

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