9/3/2023 0 Comments Uriah heep demons and wizards![]() ![]() Demons and Wizards also produced a notable radio hit for the band in "Easy Livin'," a punchy little rocker whose raging blend of fuzz guitar and swirling organ made it feel like a '70s update of classic '60s garage rockers like the Electric Prunes or Paul Revere & the Raiders. Other highlights include "Traveller in Time," a fantasy-themed rocker built on thick wah-wah guitar riffs, and "Circle of Hands," a stately power ballad with a gospel-meets-heavy metal feel to it. 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. From short, sharp rock songs to lengthy, musically dense epics, Demons and Wizards finds Uriah Heep covering all the bases with style and power. As if it has always been a part of me.This is the album that solidified Uriah Heep's reputation as a master of gothic-inflected heavy metal. ![]() I only discovered Uriah Heep in my 30s – I am 35 at the time of writing – but everything in Demons & Wizards brings me to more ancient, familiar sensations. This opus is a comforting friend, hugging you and telling you everything is going to be OK. The album feels fun, melancholic, jubilatory, soothing and sparkling… Travelling in Time has no match to cheer you up in the morning, Circle of Hands is one to be sung along with friends over a campfire. It was four aces, the Heep being the Ace of Hearts.įor this is what Demons & Wizards directly reaches : the heart. While they might remain in the shadow of their more successful contemporaries, enough major bands and artists – Blind Guardian, Queensrÿche, Dream Theater, Randy Rhoads, Queen, Ghost to name a few – claimed lineage to Uriah Heep to break the usual idea that the origin of Heavy Metal has a triumvirate. From the very first measures of The Wizard – the best tale song to be sung under the shower ever – to the The Spell’s great shenanigans and through Easy Livin’s juggernaut hymn, every piece is engraved in Heavy Metal’s collective unconscious. The whole album exudes the fun they had composing and playing all these songs, all of them being instant classics. And the only word that comes to my mind to qualify the result of their artistic alchemy is “luminous”. The Heep are dreamersĭemons & Wizards is their fourth and highest charting album, the one who would elevate to a “cult” status what would then be considered as the canonical quintet : guitarist and wah-wah pedal grandmaster Mick Box, Gary Thain’s melodic bass guitar, drummer Lee Kerslake with his punchy and jazzy touch, keyboardist, main composer and absolute genius Kenneth Hensley, and of course the multi-octave, almost operatic singer David Byron. They are a realm of their own, bright, melancholic and colourful. Having both heavy electric guitars and powerful riffs in the likes of the Zep’ and the Sab’, and keyboard magic that has nothing to envy to Deep Purple, Uriah Heep stand clearly apart from these three titans. Despite an almost equally great popular success, and despite the fact that nothing could be more wrong. Funny thing is, while Black Sabbath’s “degenerate music” were originally slaughtered by the press regardless of their popular acclaim, the Heep were hit just as hard two years later… Because they were deemed to be mere “Black Sabbath imitators”. Within the biblic times of 70s rock the Heep are a connoisseur’s band, stuck in between Hendrix, the Doors, Yes and of course the unholy trinity Led Zep – Sabbath – Purple. A dusty vinyl pulled out of the attic, that I’d play on dad’s old turntable out of curiosity and for the cover art’s kitsch. To me and my 90s-2000s upbringing Uriah Heep should feel charmingly old-fashioned, something that belongs in a flea market. No matter when they came out, and no matter when one stumbled upon it. While most albums bear the significance of their own time, some manage to stay relevant many decades after their release.Īnd some others, even less numerous, just feel like they’ve ALWAYS been here. Music and Time have a weird relationship. Pour lire la version française, cliquez ici Genre : Heavy Metal, Psychedelic Rock, Prog Rock, Hard Rock
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