Uriah Heep Shm

This album was the debut of Uriah Heep, an English band that would become one of the Titans of the '70s heavy metal sound. Despite their eventual hard-rocking reputation, Very 'Eavy… Very 'Umble finds the band trying on different stylistic hats as they work towards finding their own sound…

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…

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…

On their second album, Uriah Heep jettisons the experiments that weighed down Very 'Eavy Very 'Umble and works toward perfecting their blend of heavy metal power and prog rock complexity. Salisbury tips the band's style in the prog direction, containing one side of songs and one side dominated by a lengthy and ornate epic-length composition…

After reaching an international level of success with Demons and Wizards, Uriah Heep continued to build their fan base by knocking out another album of prog-like metal before the year's end. The end result, The Magician's Birthday, is not as consistent or cohesive as Demons and Wizards but still offers plenty of highlights…

High and Mighty is the ninth studio album by British hard rock band Uriah Heep, released in 1976 by Bronze Records in the UK and Warner Bros. Records in the US. High and Mighty was the last Uriah Heep album to feature vocalist and founding member David Byron, who was subsequently fired due to his troubles with alcohol (he later died in 1985)…

After rising from the ashes with 1982's impressive Abominog, Uriah Heep continued to pursue a similar combination of heavy metal firepower and AOR sleekness on Head First. This album lacks the consistently strong tunes and unified feel of its predecessor, but it still offers enough highlights to make it worth a listen…

In one regard, Queen II does indeed provide more of the same thing as on the band's debut. Certainly, of all the other albums in Queen's catalog it bears the closest resemblance to its immediate predecessor, particularly in its lean, hard attack and in how it has only one song that is well-known to listeners outside of their hardcore cult: in this case, it's "Seven Seas of Rhye," which is itself more elliptical than "Keep Yourself Alive," the big song from the debut…