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This ain't your father's Uriah Heep, eh? Only guitarist Mick Box remains, from the olden days, I think...? I'm not positive 'bout that but he's a dude I recognize and certainly remember. There's no Ken Hensley but the band continues to play many of his compositions. The line-up for this live set also includes guest appearances by one-time Heep member John Lawton and Heather Findlay of Mostly Autumn.
Well, maybe this is your father's Heep...? The sound and approach hasn't really changed much, just the personel. They do perform a few acoustic songs in the middle of the album, so it's not all headbangin' stuff. The set starts with EASY LIVIN'. EASY LIVIN' sounds about like it always did with the swirling organ and driving guitar. Heep was considered heavy and metalic in their early dayz, and they stille are.
SHADOWS OF GRIEF sounds much as it used to despite a different vocalist. Keyboardist Paul Lanzon Gives Heep their patented organ sound quite capably. CRY FREEDOM by Box & Lanzon sounds like a new song to me. It's done in classic Heep style with plenty of organ. I liked it okay. Lanzon's composition BAD BAD MAN is a purr-dy good rocker but it doesn't follow the classic Heep mold seemingly, to me. It could almost pass for AC-DC, sorta'...?
Lead vocalist Bernie Shaw's vocals lend tunes like FIREFLY and WISE MAN a little different sound than when they were sung by Ken Hensley, once upon a time. His voice is noticably raspier than Hensley's was. FIREFLY is stille a purr-dy, purr-dy tune that highlights the Heep's softer side.
HEARTLESS LAND is a pretty little acoustic number that doesn't even last 2 minutes. It left me wishin' it were longer. THE WIZARD sounds nice as a drumless acoustic thingy. It's just guitar with some soft electric piano in the background.
After the several acoustic pieces, the band electrifies again. LOVE IN SILENCE a Box & Lanzon composition featuring the guest vocalists from Mostly Autumn is quite nice. The vocals are really purr-dy and then it has a long instrumental break with swirling organ and solos for the bass and guitar against that backdrop. Heather Findlay's vocals make me wanna check out Mostly Autumn's SA-CD on this same label, Classic Rock Legends Ltd.
The albums last 3 cuts, BEEN AWAY TOO LONG & STEALIN' & THE OTHER SIDE OF MIDNIGHT, see the band get back into the heavy rockin' mode. The Heep didn't include my very favourite tunes from the 70's GYPSY QUEEN and LOOK AT YOURSELF. I'm really suprised LOOK AT YOURSELF didn't make an appearance. It was proably their single, biggest tune? Just the same, you get a nice set here with an acoustic middle.
About the mixes, the stereo is reg-lar stereo and works just fine for me. The M/C mix is a little unusual. Forget vocals in the centre channel, you get the bass player. The vocals are very stereo-ish in the left and right channels. The sides are mostly ambient and they seem to let some crowd noise be evident briefly between cuts, otherwise you'd hardly notice 'em. It worked for me but it's hardly the usual mixing technique! The album sounds good to me either way.
The bad part of this album is it's not we-leased in da U.S. I got it from Amazon U.K. Damn wec-cord kompanies are always pullin that mearde, eh?
Rachael, the big disc cat! I used to be looking for Hi-Vision Laserdiscs & D-Theater tapes, now I'm looking for HD-DVD's and Blu-rays.
I survived the AFI top 100 Film Challenge! I've seen them all.
favourite saying: hard feelings are for park benches... sit on that!
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