Uriah Heep remains one of those bands that had a huge cult following in the United States, they sold a modest amount of records, one time members included bassist Bob Dailey (Ozzy Osborne, Gary Moore) and Vocalist John Wetton (Asia, King Crimson) who were among the ongoing process of the ever-changing lineup (the only consistent member is guitarist Mick Box), their biggest hit
"Easy Livin" came early on in their career and then they vanished from most of the
AOR airwaves, and although signed to Gerry Bron's Bronze record label (also the home at one time to Motorhead, Manfred Mann, and Girlschool), the distributing labels in the U.S. such as Warner Bros. and Mercury, never really backed them up enough to receive the critical acclaim they deserved. Hence, yet another casualty of the corporate rock world.
But as we know many of these bands get their just desserts later on in life with their influence on other bands. Heep's sound combined the heavy Hammond organ sound of
Deep Purple and Atomic Rooster, The dark Metal stance of
Black Sabbath (not to mention that also reflected the band's lyrical concepts), as well as the progressive rock sound of
Yes and Genesis. Often hard to categorize, but yet flowing from one genre to the next, they went from being one of the forefathers of Progressive Metal in the seventies to becoming a melodic Metal/Hard Rock band in the eighties, continuing to release material to this day. Not to mention that Sanctuary/Castle has remastered their complete back catalog that spans many albums.
This compilation showcases this group as strong songwriters, showing how their influence on today's Metal world. For openers, this compilation features exclusive tracks from well known Power Metal and Progressive Metal bands, mostly all the tracks here are exclusive to the compilation (good for completists), others have appeared on import versions of a particular band's album such as Lana Lane's take of the ballad
"Weep in Silence" covering the emotional cut with her powerful vocal stance, a cut that was only available on a Japanese version of one of her records.
Angel Dust does a smokin' take on their biggest hit
"Easy Livin'," making it sound more elaborate than the progressive pop metal that it originally was. Onward's version of
"Birds of Prey" might have been unthinkable years ago when the song was originally recorded, now here as an aggressive Power Metal cut. The heaviest cover on this tribute is Freebase's version of
"Suicidal Man"
For the most part the stand out cuts include Liege Lord's version of
"Too Scared to Run," which sound more like it was influenced by
Judas Priest rather than Heep. Also there is a supergroup that bears the name Easy Livin', that features members of
Helloween and
Gamma Ray covering
"Circle of Hands," where they seem to have to cloned the production, even vocal wise. The darkest cut here belongs to Jack
Frost with the cover of
"Lady in Black."
When it comes to the production of these cuts, many of these bands use the Hammond organ/Keyboards that they otherwise would not have used, while keeping their own signature take on these cuts. For the most part, the bands represented here should speak for themselves, and in many cases some of these cuts might be hit or miss (more hits than misses for me), and for the most part are enjoyable and serve as an introduction to Uriah Heep.
Written by
Hashman Sunday, September 21, 2003
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