Huriah Heep

Chaos & Colour, the energetic and triumphant 25th studio album from British hard rock legends and progenators Uriah Heep, bristles with explosive classic rock guitars, supreme harmonies, and Heep's famously generous keyboard foundation. This deluxe edition includes a demo version of 'Save Me Tonight' as a bonus track. Led by founding member Mick Box, it is no surprise that themes of light, love and, ultimately, positivity are constant through the eleven tracks. Opener "Save Me Tonight" shows the band's weighty yet blistering chops, whilst "One Nation, One Sun" is a journey of soaring balladic contemplation.

Uriah Heep are releasing their anticipated brand new studio album - the 25th in their storied career - which will be titled, appropriately enough, Living The Dream . "We have been together for 47 years and we have seen many bands come and go, so in effect we are Still Living The Dream, so it was the perfect title for the new album, says Uriah Heep guitarist and founding member Mick Box. Famed Canadian engineer, Jay Ruston has been called in to produce the album. Mick continues: We chose Jay because we admire his work with The Winery Dogs, Stone Sour, Black Star Riders, Paul Gilbert, and Europe. Jay has either produced, mixed or both for these bands, and he brought a fresh approach to Heep.

Outsider is Uriah Heep's 24th studio album. It follows the untimely passing of their beloved bass player, Trevor Bolder in May 2013. The recording started in late 2013 at Liscombe Park Studios in Buckinghamshire, England and features 11 brand new songs, including some epic additions to the band's huge catalog of rock classics. Uriah Heep debuted in 1970 with the release of one of Hard Rock music's milestones Very 'eavy… Very 'umble (which some rock historians argue contains the very FIRST heavy metal song ever, the classic Gypsy) and have since sold in excess of 30 million albums worldwide.

Although Uriah Heep is known for its extensive personnel changes, its lineup has been stable since the mid-'80s; unfortunately, that stability coincided with the band's commercial decline (its last album to chart in the U.S. came in 1983, its last in its native U.K., 1985). So, no one outside the group's fan base noticed that the quintet of founding member and guitarist Mick Box, drummer Lee Kerslake (1971-1978, 1982-2007), bassist Trevor Bolder (who joined in 1977, left during the band's hiatus in the early '80s, and returned a couple of years after its re-formation), singer Bernie Shaw, and keyboard player Phil Lanzon (both of whom joined in the mid-'80s) remained in place through numerous world tours and the studio albums Raging Silence (1989), Different World (1991), Sea of Light (1995), and Sonic Origami (1998).

After losing founding vocalist David Byron in 1976, many hard rock fans thought Uriah Heep had reached the end of the line. However, the group bounced back in 1977 with Firefly, an album that pursued a stripped-down sound harking back to the group's early-'70s successes. They also boasted a new singer in John Lawton, a vocalist who had made his fame working with artsy German hard rockers Lucifer's Friend. Although he lacked the multi-octave range of David Byron, Lawton boasted an impressive and emotionally rich hard rock voice that instantly jelled with the Uriah Heep sound. An ideal example of this new synergy was provided by the opening track, "The Hanging Tree," which featured Lawton dramatically delivering a narrative about an outlaw on the run over a spooky musical track that blended echo-drenched synthesizers with some typically gutsy guitar riffs from Mick Box.

To irritate snobbish rock critics in the 1970s, all a band had to do was play heavy metal or progressive rock. Imagine their horror when Uriah Heep came along and consciously fused both styles. Uriah Heep was the subject of one vicious critic's infamous quote, "If this group makes it, I'll have to commit suicide." …

This is the album that solidified Uriah Heep's reputation as a master of gothic-inflected heavy metal. From short, sharp rock songs to lengthy, musically dense epics, Demons and Wizards finds Uriah Heep covering all the bases with style and power. The album's approach is set with its lead-off track, "The Wizard": it starts as a simple acoustic tune but soon builds into a stately rocker that surges forth on a Wall of Sound built from thick guitar riffs, churchy organ, and operatic vocal harmonies. Other highlights include "Traveller in Time," a fantasy-themed rocker built on thick wah-wah guitar riffs, and "Circle of Hands," a stately power ballad with a gospel-meets-heavy metal feel to it.