Uriah Heep Return To Fantasy

After two albums that downplayed their penchant for gothic sounds and mystical lyrics, Uriah Heep brought these elements back to the fore on 1975's Return to Fantasy. The resulting album retains the musical experimentation that marked Sweet Freedom and Wonderworld, but has an overall harder-rocking feel that makes it more consistent than either one of those albums…

After two albums that downplayed their penchant for gothic sounds and mystical lyrics, Uriah Heep brought these elements back to the fore on 1975's Return to Fantasy. The resulting album retains the musical experimentation that marked Sweet Freedom and Wonderworld but has an overall harder-rocking feel that makes it more consistent than either one of those albums. Return to Fantasy throws down the gauntlet with the title track, which builds from a tapestry of spooky synthesizer and organ riffs into a thunderous rock tune where the guitar and organ duel over a galloping backbeat laid down by Lee Kerslake. It's bracing stuff and one of the finest rockers in the Uriah Heep canon.

After two albums that downplayed their penchant for gothic sounds and mystical lyrics, Uriah Heep brought these elements back to the fore on 1975's Return to Fantasy. The resulting album retains the musical experimentation that marked Sweet Freedom and Wonderworld, but has an overall harder-rocking feel that makes it more consistent than either one of those albums. Return to Fantasy throws down the gauntlet with the title track, which builds from a tapestry of spooky synthesizer and organ riffs to a thunderous rock tune where the guitar and organ duel over a galloping backbeat laid down by Lee Kerslake…

After two albums that downplayed their penchant for gothic sounds and mystical lyrics, Uriah Heep brought these elements back to the fore on 1975's Return to Fantasy. The resulting album retains the musical experimentation that marked Sweet Freedom and Wonderworld but has an overall harder-rocking feel that makes it more consistent than either one of those albums. Return to Fantasy throws down the gauntlet with the title track, which builds from a tapestry of spooky synthesizer and organ riffs into a thunderous rock tune where the guitar and organ duel over a galloping backbeat laid down by Lee Kerslake. It's bracing stuff and one of the finest rockers in the Uriah Heep canon.

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." …

Taking their name from the scheming, parasitic lawyer in Charles Dickens' 1850 novel David Copperfield, Uriah Heep are a progressive rock institution who, alongside bands like Deep Purple, Queen, Black Sabbath, and Led Zeppelin, helped lay the foundation for the hard rock/heavy metal scene." The band maintains a significant following and performs at arena-sized venues in the Balkans, Germany, Japan, the Netherlands, Russia and Scandinavia. They have sold over 40 million albums worldwide with over 4 million sales in the U.S, where its best-known songs include "Easy Livin'", "The Wizard", "Sweet Lorraine", and "Stealin".

Evoking an era when prog, hard rock and heavy metal co-existed in an era of glorious, boundary-breaking music, the songs on this 2CD and digital collection trace the evolution of Heep from inexperienced studio musicians with everything to prove to bona fide, limo inhabiting rock stars. The Anthology cherry picks tracks from some of Heep’s most celebrated albums including ‘Demons And Wizards’, ‘Look At Yourself’, ‘Return To Fantasy’, ‘Equator’, ‘Conquest’ and ‘The Magician’s Birthday’. Created with the full collaboration of Heep themselves and curated by guitarist and founder member Mick Box, the reissues come as 2CD expanded packages, with the original album on CD1 re-mastered by renowned engineer Andy Pearce of Lou Reed and Black Sabbath fame and complete with liner notes in extensive booklet with rare photos by the bestselling rock author Joel McIver. Box and Heep’s sometime member Ken Hensley, composer of many of the band’s best-known songs, contribute to each album’s notes.

Blending plain old hard rock with prog rock tendencies and a clear ear for a good radio-ready pop hook, Uriah Heep never exactly wowed the critics, perhaps because their lyrical fascination with wizards and demons could make them seem as addled as Spinal Tap in that band's famous Stonehenge concert scene. But critics don't make rock memories, and Uriah Heep, despite countless lineup changes, remained a steady band that played at being outlaws on the run and produced at least a couple of enduring rock radio classics in the early '70s, most notably their fun versions of "Stealin'" and "Easy Livin'," both of which present the band at its best. This set has both of those songs, plus other bare-bone essentials like "Lady in Black" and "The Wizard," and for most casual fans, it'll fill the bill.