An Album A Day is released 5 days a week, Monday-Friday
Today we are looking at the 197- album by heavy metal band Uriah Heep, Demons and Wizards. This band debuted only a few years after more well known early metal bands like Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin and Deep Purple. This coupled with the band always having to compete with these other bands means that most people don’t usually mention Uriah Heep when talking about early metal bands. This makes Uriah Heep one of the most underrated classic metal bands of all time, and Demons and Wizards is considered by most to be their best album.
Stylistically, Uriah Heep sit somewhere between Zeppelin and Deep Purple, with a folk and hard rock sound dominated by huge organs and keyboards. That’s not to say that they don’t have their own sound, but they do share a lot of similarities with those two bands. Uriah Heep also have a lot of elements that predict future metal and rock stylings, such as the operatic vocals that would be common in power metal and arena rock. Some of the guitar solos on this album, particularly on The Spell, remind me of Avenged Sevenfold.
This album features Uriah Heep’s biggest hit, the song Easy Livin’ which fits nicely in with other classic rock music and artists. Easy Livin’ has all of the hallmarks of Uriah Heep’s sound, but it’s a bit shorter and less progressive than a lot of their other tracks, making it more digestible on a classic rock station. Other tracks off of this album of particular note are Rainbow Demon, All My Life and The Spell.
Rainbow Demon is a track that shows some of the progressive rock sound that Uriah Heep are known for. The track starts off with a plodding drum beat that calls to mind a church bell ringing with only organ and vocals accompanying the drums. The lyrical style either influenced or predicted bands like Dio and Iron Maiden with the same level of vaguely spiritual or mythical lyrics sang like an epic. The track closes out with an extended blues rock guitar solo and one execution of the chorus.
All My Life is an interesting track that sounds like Led Zeppelin for the first half before turning into hair metal meets gospel for the second half. The first half is a strongly blues based rock track with some folk elements, while the second half is taken over by organs and choirs that drive home a powerful gospel feeling. Lead singer David Byron shows of his upper range, hitting some ridiculously high notes during the songs crescendo.
The last track on this album The Spell is one of the strongest tracks on the album. Despite having a very upbeat piano riff leading most of the song, it deviates off into various interludes including a nearly 2 minute long guitar solo. The thing that I really like about these guys is even when they have the opportunity to go nuts and be overtly flashy they still use restraint and play tastefully so as to benefit the song. Rather than having different sections that go in a million directions with everyone showing off, the song has movements much like a classical piece.
While they may not be remembered as readily as other bands of their day, such as Sabbath or Zeppelin, Uriah Heep are a top notch early metal and prog act who absolutely deserve a listen. These guys are still making new music and touring to this day, albeit with a different lineup than during the classic years. It really is a shame that they don’t get more recognition, because if this album is any indication a lot of people don’t know what they’re missing.
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