CD Review: A Look Back At Uriah Heep With "Your Turn To Remember" Anthology

Music label BMG have recently announced a new extensive reissue program for the British hard rock band, Uriah Heep. The first release is a 31-track 2CD set titled "Your Turn To Remember: The Definitive Anthology 1970-1990." Uriah Heep was praised along with Led Zeppelin as the early torchbearers of heavy metal music and this set will help solidify that claim.

 

Beginning with the hard rock guitar blazing, drum-pounding of "Gypsy" from the band's debut album "...Very 'Eavy ...Very 'Umble," Uriah Heep lay down the blueprint for British heavy metal. They switch gears with the quieter, mystical appeal of "Come Away Melinda" and "Lady In Black" as their songwriting and music took on a more progressive feel. Songs like "Look At Yourself" and "Easy Livin," began the comparisons between Uriah Heep and Deep Purple as both features exciting, memorable guitar riffs and electrifying keyboard solos.

 

The popularity of "Sweet Lorraine" and "Stealin'"grew the band's notoriety in the U.S. as their heavy metal sound reached a mainstream level with the Billboard top 100 album "Sweet Freedom." The addition of John Wetton on bass in 1975 gave their sound a more experimental, progressive rock appeal on the songs "Return To Fantasy" and "Weep In Silence." Uriah Heep closed out the seventies with the hard rock romp of "Free 'n' Easy" and the quick-rhythm of "Woman Of The Night."

 

As the band approached the 1980's, their sound contained more synthesizers and a more mainstream pop/rock tone as with "It Ain't Easy" and "Chasing Shadows." Their sound fit perfectly alongside the guitar solo driven, melodic hair metal of the eighties with songs like "The Other Side Of Midnight" and "Voice On My TV Box." The new anthology covers sixteen of Uriah Heep's albums, leaving out their 1985 album "Equator." To find out more about Uriah Heep and their latest release "Your Turn To Remember: The Definitive Anthology 1970-1990," please visit uriah-heep.com.