On Birmingham's Magnum 2nd album they developed their style of symphonic, progressive melodic hard rock into a great bunch of good sounding songs on this superb album! It was produced by former Ten Years After-bassist Leo Lyons who successfully had produced 3 albums for UFO. This time they toured as support to Blue Öyster Cult but the album failed to chart. Incredible! Maybe Magnum's music were already dated in 1979, or they were maybe ahead of their time? Some years later they would achieve great success, but they deserved it already many years before. This is a must have for fans of melodic stadium hard rock.

Drummer Kex Gorin sadly passed away in 2007.

1)Great adventure (8,0) A more mature band than the debut album, but in the same style as before.

2)Changes (6,5) Magnum goes looking for a hit with this pop-refrain-melodic hardrocker. It could've been a world hit but wasn't.

3)The battle (7,5) A good rocker.

4)If I could live forever (9,0) Great intro, superb mix of melodic refrains and heavy riffs and strong vocals.

5)Reborn (9,0) Absolutely great melodic progressive hardrock with delicious feeling for details!

6)So cold the night (8,5) Another one!

7)Foolish heart (7,0) Strong melodic refrain-rocker. But a little weak as it was supposed to reach the charts...

8)Stayin' alive (8,5) Very Meat Loaf-ish melodic powerballad. Very good!

9)Firebird (9,5) This is just sooo great! One of the strongest refrains ever and the mix between progressive and melodic is just incredible.

10)All of my life (8,5)

Score: 8,20

Bob Catley-vocals (b.1947)

Tony Clarkin (Anthony Michael Clarkin)-guitars (b.1946)

Colin "Wally" Lowe-bass

Kex Gorin-drums (1949-2007)

Richard Bailey-keyboards and flute

One of my all time favourite bands, british Magnum, with their 1st album which was recorded already in 1976 but released in 1978 by Jet Records. At the time they were compared to Styx, Jethro Tull, Yes and Kansas who also played melodic rock and hard rock but with a definitive progressive twist with strong songs and choruses. Before the album was released Magnum had toured with for example Judas Priest. The album reached nr. 58 on the british charts.

The band started as a house band at the Rum Runner night club in Birmingham. (Later to hold Duran Duran as their house band). Joining Tony Clarkin and Bob Catley were Kex Gorin on drums and Bob Doyle on bass. Doyle was replaced by Dave Morgan in 1972. (Later to be a member of ELO). Colin "Wally" Lowe bacame Magnum's 3rd bassist in 1975 and the band was expanded by Richard Bailey on keyboards. After the album was released they toured as opening act to Whitesnake.

I like this album very much, it may feel a bit amateurish here and there but, hey this is an debut album! It has a raw  production and the songs are as good as on any following Magnum-album. Maybe the song Invasion could be better but overall this is a good album to play whenever!

Drummer Kex Goring died of cancer in 2007.

1)In the beginning (8,0) Charming, somewhat amateurish progressive hardrock with nice melodies and changes. Really good second part of the song.

2)Baby rock me (7,0) A straight rocker.

3)Universe (7,5) Barclay James Harvest-like calmer song with nice melodic choruses.

4)Kingdom of madness (7,5) Good rocker containing flute.

5)All that is real (7,5) A calmer part and then progressive rock. Very good singing.

6)The bringer (8,0) Great riff!

7)Invasion (6,0) Too badly recorded.

8)Lords of chaos (7,0) These songs promise for more and better music to come.

9)All come togheter (7,5) Simply a good hardrocker!

Score: 7,33

Bob Catley-vocals (b.1947)

Tony Clarkin (Anthony Michael Clarkin) -guitars (b.1946)

Colin  Lowe-bass

Kex Gorin-drums (1949-2007)

Richard Bailey-keyboards and flute

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)

Heep's 5th album and it's a damn good one! Since I bought the LP in Gothenburgh in 2000 I have listened to this one a lot. Some of the band's absolutely best songs are on it even if there's only 8 songs on the album, in fact very normal number of songs at the time. Heep continued, like on the last album only a half year before, creating progressive songs but also with very melodic parts in the songs, especially the refrains. The 10-minute progressive titlesong that ends the album could have been better though, there's something missing compared to earlier songs they recorded. The lineup is the classic one that gave Heep their biggest success. The album went to nr. 31 in the USA and to nr. 28 in the UK. Also nr. 1 in Finland and nr. 5 in Norway! This is an album every rocker should own.

1)Sunrise (9,0) A very good album-opener that builds up to a majestic and powerful song.

2)Spider woman (8,0) Good boogie-rocker.

3)Blind eye (7,0) Acoustic guitars in this energic rocker. Nice combination!

4)Echoes in the dark (9,0) UH at their best; melodic, heavy, progressive and pure quality.

5)Rain (8,5) Beautiful piano and vocal-ballad.

6)Sweet Lorraine (8,5) Midtempo rocker in true Heep-style with great basslines, psychotic keyboards and a catchy refrain.

7)Tales (8,5) Beautiful melody and singing by Byron in this slow great song!

8)The magician's birthday (7,0) Strange, both chaotic and melodic 10-minute track that sounds like there's 3-4 songs tied together.

Score: 8,19

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

Mick Box-guitars (b.1947)

Gary Thain-bass (1948-1975)

Lee Kerslake-drums and kazoo (b.1947)

Ken Hensley-keyboards and guitars (b.1945)

With one of rockhhistory's greatest covers Judas Priest's 2nd album was full of heavy riffing, progressiveness melody and pure heavy metal. It was their last album on the small Gull label and when the band switched to Columbia Records they lost the rights to the first 2 albums. The former singer in Judas Priest, Al Atkins, co-wrote the songs Victim Of Changes and Dreamer Deceiver. Except for the song Epitaph this is really really an album worth having for any fans of hard rock. The songs are really good and you can hear what time this music was recorded in, it's full of music that would lead many other bands in the same direction and inspire a whole generation of rockers from all over the world and led to Judas Priest becoming one of the most popular bands of the era and for over 30 years to come!

The drummer Alan (Alen on the album) Moore was also the drummer for Judas Priest in 1971-1972 when Al Atkins was still the singer. After this album he once again quit the band and eventually later retired from music and no one has ever been able to trace him since.

1)Victim of changes (9,0) Absolutely great song with a heavy and powerful but also simple riff and consruction and the toned down part in the middle (written by Al Atkins) that bursts into the final is awesome!

2)The ripper (8,0) A hard, heavy and short rocker.

3)Dreamer deceiver (8,5) Very good powerful ballad.

4)Deceiver (8,0) Great driving rhythm and, as always, very good strong singing from Halford.

5)Prelude (-) 2-minute keyboardthing.

6)Tyrant (8,5) Superb heavy metal!

7)Genocide (8,0) Very simple but oh so good.

8)Epitaph (3,0) Stupid piano-vocal-ballad.

9)Island of domination (8,0)

Score: 7,62

Robert Halford-vocals (b.1951)

K.K Downing-guitars (b.1951)

Glenn Tipton-guitars and piano (b.1947)

Ian Hill-bass (b.1951)

Alen Moore-drums (b.1947)

Uriah Heep's 7th album was recorded in Munich, Germany. The members of the band had began fighting over different things; David Byron was drunk most of the time and Ken Hensley was jealous over the attention David was getting and Gary Thain's drug addiction was taking it's toll, and got worse when he was electrocuted on stage in Dallas during a show and later when he left hospital he in Sounds Magazine accused manager Gerry Bron of turning Uriah Heep into a mere "financial thing". Thain was fired and died of a heroin overdose in december the same year 1975. He was replaced by John Wetton from Family and King Crimson. The album is okey, not bad at all, but something is clearly missing compared to past albums and they had moved into a more commercial direction even though it's clearly Uriah Heep that's playing!

1)Wonderworld (7,5)

2)Suicidal man (8,0)

3)The shadow and the wind (5,0)

4)So tired (8,0)

5)The easy road (7,5)

6)Something or nothing (7,5)

7)I won't mind (7,0)

8)We got we (8,0)

9)Dreams (6,0)

Score: 7,17

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

Mick Box-guitars (b.1947)

Gary Thain-bass (1948-1975)

Lee Kerslake-drums (b.1947)

Ken Hensley-organ and guitars (b.1945)

Recorded at a remote cottage in Wales named Bron-Yr-Aur, Led Zep's 3rd (!) album moved towards folk and acoustic rock as well as the high energy hardrock they were known for. Since the cottage had no electricity or running water the composing became more acoustic and calm, as an opposite to the hard working they had just been through on a lengthy north american tour. The album reached nr. 1 in many countries like the U.S.A., Australia and U.K but were a dissapointment to many fans.

The drummer John Bonham drank himself to death in 1980, 32 years of age.

1)Immigrant song (8,0) 2-minute heavy uptempo song with Plant's trademark shouted vocals.

2)Friends (6,5) Somewhat strange intensive acoustic and violin-song.

3)Celebration day (8,0) Good driving slideguitar tune but a bit too monotone.

4)Since I've been loving you (8,0) A 7-minute sensitive slow heavy blues.

5)Out on the tiles (7,5) Messy, intense and heavy. Nice change of riff but rather monotone track.

6)Gallows pole (4,5) Monotone and messy banjo-hardrock. Why?

7)Tangerine (8,0) Very nice acoustic and electric short melodic song.

8)That's the way (5,0) Incredibly boring acoustic song.

9)Bron-y-aur stomp (7,0) Nice acoustic stomp.

10)Hats off to (Roy) Harper (6,0) Another acoustic. Intense and strange bluesy vocals.

Score: 6,85

Robert Plant-vocals and harmonica (b.1948)

Jimmy Page-guitars, banjo and bass on 8. (b.1944)

John Paul Jones (John Paul Baldwin) -bass, guitars, mandolin, organ and synthsizers (b.1946)

John Bonham-drums (1948-1980)

This is the 2nd album from british hard rockers Uriah Heep. From the beginning, like on this album, they put in some progressiveness as well as jazz-fusion in their music. This is partly why I like Uriah Heep's music so much. But they also made some really really good pure rock'n'roll-hardrock and both can be heard on this album. The 16-minute title track includes a 24-piece orchestra and this is one of the best collaborations between rock and orchestra I have heard! The name Salisbury comes from a military training field in England, that's why there's a tank on the cover. Personally I don't understand why they used that photo. The album reached nr. 1 in Finland and nr. 103 in U.S.A

The drummer Keith Baker had played on one single track on the last album but now got the full time job. He was also the original drummer for Supertramp in 1969-1970 (Supertramp were then called Daddy).

1)Bird of prey (7,5) Quite progressive song with many elements and a nice change of tempo at the end but Byron's singing here and there sounds strained to say at least...

2)The park (8,5) Very sweet and mellow song with great sensitive vocals. Very good!

3)Time to live (8,5) Great powerful short song.

4)Lady in black (8,0) Good melodic acoustic sing-a-long tune. A little too repetitive.

5)High pristess (7,5) A good hard rocker.

6)Salisbury (9,5) 16 minutes very progressive song that starts with organ and an orchestra, then hardrocking and then a long bass- and drumdriven jazzy part and the guitarsolo at the end is mighty and the orchestra, organ and background vocals melts together really nice. A trememdeous song!

Score: 8,25

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

Mick Box-guitars (b.1947)

Paul Newton-bass (b.1945)

Keith Baker-drums (b.1948)

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