Britain's Uriah Heep's absolutely 1st album were recorded in 1969-early 1970 and consisted of guitarrist Mick Box and singer David Garrick, later re-named David Byron. They had formed a band called Spice and drummer Alex Napier and bassist Paul Newton of the band The Gods completed the line-up. During the recording of the 1st album Box who was a Vanilla Fudge-fan and got inspiration from their organ-playing, recruited another member; in came Ken Hensley who also came from The Gods. They changed their name to Uriah Heep and at the end of the recordings they replaced Napier with Nigel Olsson who in fact was recommended to Byron by Elton John of all people. Olsson played for Elton John at the time. Alex Napier never played proffesionally again after this.

The album was not well recieved among critics but looking back this is truly an very good example of the best of the era, with Heep mixing in progressive elements, soulful ballads, jazz, ultra-heavy hardrock and melody, like no other band. They created something unique and after all these years this album is still as good as ever, a must have!

The album-cover has it's story. It is a photo of singer Byron after that guitarrist Mick Box had covered Byron with cobwebs from a cobweb-making-machine. Byron was not amused since it took him weeks to get rid of all the web in his hairs! But it's a great cover!

1)Gypsy (9,0) Ultraheavy classic!
2)Walking in you shadow (8,0) Cool bassline in this simple and very good hardrocker.

3)Come away Melinda (8,0) Very 60's soul-psychadelic acoustic guitar-keyboard-song with a good refrain.

4)Lucy blues (7,5) Uriah Heep's only pure bluessong? But it's an ok one anyhow.

5)Dreammare (8,0) Quite messy and repetitive but good anyway!

6)Real turned on (7,5) A boogie-blues with noisy slideguitarwork.

7)I'll keep on trying (9,0) Fantastic simple organ-bass riff mixed with great singing and a shredding guitarsolo and tempochanges. Great stuff!

8)Wake up (set your sights) (8,5) A song with many moods, even a jazzy part, in fact the whole song is very jazzinfluenced.

Score: 8,19

David Byron (David Garrick) -vocals (1947-1985)

Mick Box-guitar (b.1947)

Paul Newton-bass (b.1945)

Alex Napier-drums (songs 1-3, 6-8)

Nigel Olsson-drums (songs 4 and 5) (b.1949)

Ken Hensley-keyboards, organ, guitars and mellotron (b.1945)

The 23rd album from the mighty Heep! This time they have really made an fantastic album that's full of vitality and life and really good melodic, hardrocking, progressive and sheer quality music that I enjoy every single second of! The only negative is that many of the songs tend to get too repetitive, making me feel that this album could have been even better than it already is. Uriah Heep have during the last 20 years or so done nothing but looking back at their 1970's roots and developing it into the new age with better sound, and this album is not any exception, and I am glad for that since they are among my favorite bands of all time. The organ that is the base in their music is much present here in a delicious way.

Sadly it's the last album to feature longtime member Trevor Bolder who died in 2013. I rembmber seeing Trevor with his long hair covering his face all the time during concert not having much of public contact at all but as important for the band anyhow after many years in the band. It's a great end for Bolder in Uriah Heep to sing in the song "Lost" on his last album.

This is an absolut must-have-album!!

1)Nail on the head (8,0)

2)I can see you (8,5)

3)Into the wild (9,0)

4)Money talk (7,0)

5)I'm ready (8,5)

6)Trail of diamonds (8,5)

7)Southern star (8,0)

8)Believe (8,5)

9)Lost (8,0)

10)T-bird angel (8,0)

11)Kiss of freedom (8,5)

Score: 8,23

Bernie Shaw-vocals (b.1956)

Mick Box-guitars (b.1947)

Trevor Bolder-bass (1950-2013)

Russel Gilbrook-drums (b.1964)

Phil Lanzon-keyboards (b.1950)