FEATURED CD - Uriah Heep : Demons And Wizards

[Duncan Glenday]

A classic! (And no smart-assed comments about Spinal Tap )

Per Allmusic :

This is the album that solidified Uriah Heep's reputation as a master of gothic-inflected heavy metal. From short, sharp rock songs to lengthy, musically dense epics, Demons and Wizards finds Uriah Heep covering all the bases with style and power. 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. 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. 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. However, the top highlight of the album is the closing medley of "Paradise" and "The Spell": the first part of the medley starts in an acoustic folk mode and slowly adds layers of organ and electric guitar until it becomes a forceful, slow-tempo rocker, while the second half is a punchy, organ-led rocker that includes an instrumental midsection where choral-style harmonies fortify a killer, Pink Floyd-style guitar solo from Ken Hensley. All in all, Demons and Wizards works both as a showcase for Uriah Heep's instrumental firepower and an excellent display of their songwriting skills in a variety of hard rock styles. As a result, it is considered by many fans to be their finest hour and is definitely worth a spin for anyone with an interest in 1970s heavy metal.

www.allmusic.com/album/demons-and-wizards-mw0000198603

[GuitarGeek]

One of the greatest hard rock albums EVER. A stone cold classic chock full of great songs. My personal favorite is Circle Of Hands. I used to be able to play that song, including the guitar solos. But the entire album just absolutely kills all competitors, as far as I'm concerned.

Somewhere around here, I have a poster tube with a poster of the Demons And Wizards artwork, signed by Herr Dean himself.

[Guitarplyrjvb]

Love this thing! Side one is flawless. Side two starting with Rainbow Demon drops off a bit, but it's still great! My absolute fave from them. I don't think they ever made a better album!

[JKL2000]

Makes me think of Jack Black more than Spinal Tap. But it's a great album. In college I knew a guy who was in the stoner frat and he had that artwork painted on a wall in his room. Kewl.

[Rarebird]

Easy Livin', wow, now that's a blast from the past, playing air-guitar and air-keyboards with my nephews.

[B D]

Always loved this! One of my fave sing-along albums, and the production is actually quite amazing...everything is right up-front, loud and dirty yet it's still punchy. I'm still fascinated and mystified by the way this albums sounds. Also a great album for those (like me) who succumb to the glory of a good overdriven Hammond/Leslie. A couple of things I could do without such as the bass is often rushing ahead of the beat, and the exaggerated vibrato on the otherwise fine singing, never cared for "All My Life", but "The Wizard", "Poet's Justice", "Traveller in Time", "Rainbow Demon"...still great!

[Rufus]

Desert Island disc!

[grego]

I love the side one, plus Rainbow Demon, the first 6 songs. All My Life is a filler, IMO -instead they'd better complete 'Green Eye' for the album. Paradise/The Spell is decent, but I prefer Magician's Birthday( the song) to this.

[PeterG]

Desert Island disc!

Absolutely!

This is my fav UH album & IMO the definitive UH album.

It sits up there on the Platinum shelf with Floyd's Moon, Zepp's IV, Sabbaths's Paranoid, Purple's Machine Head and Hawkwind's Space Ritual.

[spacefreak]

"gothic-inflected heavy metal"

[flowerking]

I love the side one, plus Rainbow Demon, the first 6 songs.

Agreed. Rainbow Demon is my favorite from this album but damn, The Wizard is a really good song. Its too bad its so short. Too bad they couldn't have put Salisbury (the song) to end the second side. What a release that would have made!

[JJ88]

The first album by the 'classic' line-up (like Yes, it took them three albums to get that line-up) and alongside the previous 'Look At Yourself', the best album they would ever make. Contrary to popular belief, they *did* get some good reviews occasionally, and deservedly so- the sleeves for the 'Live' album contain a rave review of this album by a writer for Rolling Stone, as I recall!

This has fan favourites all over the place, some of which they must have played at every gig since; the acoustic, anthemic 'The Wizard', the driving 'Easy Livin' and the lavish 'Circle Of Hands'. 'Rainbow Demon' has one of the coolest organ riffs ever put down IMHO, really brooding and malevolent. I'd agree 'All My Life' is the weak link, a bit too much of a run-of-the-mill 'rawk' song compared to all the others. There's actually a better flow to the album if you take that out, 'Paradise' is in the same key as '...Demon' and it runs nicely.

'Paradise/The Spell' has always been a favourite for me; subsequent attempts at this sort of fantastical epic like 'The Magician's Birthday' and 'Pilgrim' go some way over the top, this one stays just the right side of that divide, with that lovely instrumental section being some of the best music they made IMHO.

[Jubal]

A good hard Rock album, but not great. The overall consistency of Look At Yourself is head and shoulders above Demons and Wizards.

[Poisoned Youth]

A classic! (And no smart-assed comments about Spinal Tap )

LOL. I don't know what I want to do more now, spin this album or watch Spinal Tap.

[grego]

A good hard Rock album, but not great. The overall consistency of Look At Yourself is head and shoulders above Demons and Wizards.

I don't see much contradiction between them. Look At Yourself and Demons & Wizards are my favs of UH.

[birdman]

What makes Ken a standout organist is that (like, say Winwood) he plays really THICK. Chords anorl.

[bobert]

I have always loved Demons & Wizards , for me it is the best thing Uriah Heep ever did. A true classic that still sounds good today.

[Reid]

The only UH album I've ever owned. But I haven't listened to it since the late 70s. As BD stated, some fine material, and an excellent production.

[Scrotum Scissor]

God, I loved this when I was 13 years old. I really had a thing for the first eight UH studio albums, and collected almost all of their work. I haven't kept a single UH record, but if I was to own a title of theirs, this would be it.

They had that flair of fantasy about them that the other UK hard rock bands of their day seemed to lack (although I dug just about all of them), and somehow I think this was an opening into "symphonic" rock for me as well. I still have a special thing for that closing suite on D&W, but the Spinal Tap-factor eventually caught up with my senses about them.

[B D]

What makes Ken a standout organist is that (like, say Winwood) he plays really THICK. Chords anorl.

Agreed, he knew how to voice the organ chords and how to use the organ/leslie. On "Rainbow Demon" that organ is so great it doesn't matter that he's just playing the same riff over and over, it sounds so great every time!

[notallwhowander]

A great album, albeit with some flaws. The highs are so high, however, that the flaws become simply endearing. "Rainbow Demon," for example, is a hoot. The lyrics often could use improvement: way too many rhymed couplets of the most obvious kind. How many time is fire and desire rhymed? Maybe, five? Ugh. But whenever that gets to me, I just focus in on the bass playing, which is everything I want it to be. Then there is that awkward fade in "Paradise/The Spell." Really? They couldn't arrange a decent bridge between the two? But, ultimately, it is just a hiccup. After all, it's a rock album. And the primary question is: does it rock or not? And yea, it does mightily!

So, while I don't think it quite sits on the "platinum shelf," as it were, it is still just as essential. No '70s hard rock collection would be complete without it. There is so much right going on on this album, that the wrong doesn't really matter.

[Blah_Blah_Woof_Woof]

It was always hard to convince my friends that heavy metal (we called it hard rock) was legitimate. I loved the first three Black Sabbath LP's, Deep Purple's Burn and only played UH's Look At Yourself with any regularity. It was almost perfunctorily that I bought Demons and Birthday, seemingly to collect the Roger Dean portfolio. I regret skimming over these and could have enjoyed them at the time. I still own them and will queue them up on the turntable soon (with headphones only, I'm afraid)

[simon moon]

I LOVED this back in the day, along with the rest of the first 5. I bought 'Very 'eavy' when it was first imported.

I tried to listen to them a couple of years ago, and they did not do a thing for me, except for some nostalgia.

But then, my tastes have changed quite a bit since then.

[thos]

Never heard the album until now. Nice production. Not crazy about the vocals/lyrics, but that's just me.

Always dug the cover art from Roger Dean's Views.

It's all about the source of the waterfall

[mogrooves]

Not crazy about the vocals/lyrics, but that's just me.

It's not. Trust me.