Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Artist: Uriah Heep
Label: Castle Communications
Release: 1991
Rating: 2.5/5
“Different World”, as the follow-up to “Raging Silence” (1989), has a very fitting title, since Heep found themselves in a spot of unexpected turbulence during this period, and had to fight their way through it while recording the album. The producer’s chair for the new record went to none other than the band’s bassist Trevor Bolder, after Richard Dodd turned down working with the band because he was tied up with some contracts in the US, with bigger names like Bob Dylan. Put plainly, he’d already signed a few better-paying deals before Uriah Heep’s offer came along, otherwise he’d surely have said yes.
“Diffrent World” is a different beast from “Raging Silence”. It opens with a typical Uriah Heep banger, Blood On Stone, which instantly nails the band’s familiar trademarks (even though this was in fact a completely new and different band that just carried the same old name), but the rest of the album doesn’t quite match it in mood. Blood On Stone can easily fool a casual listener, who gets the feeling this is just another punchier, more pompous album in the vein of “Raging Silence”. A punchy blend of melodic AOR perfection, with bombastic multi-part harmonized choruses, and you can’t get more “Heepnotized” than what Blood On Stone delivers. And just look at what comes next, damn it! Unbelievable, but Which Way Will The Wind Blow carries that signature American hedonistic “glam beat”, the kind you’d find in, say, the red-hot hit of the day Unskinny Bop (Poison), and it’s not far from the scandalous playbook of Aerosmith at the time either. It’s interesting, too, that in God’s Children (with snippets of a children’s choir) that seductive “funky beat” doesn’t let up, and the feeling we soon pick up through “Different World” is that Heep tried to put out an album that would sit closer to American audiences and fire up the hearts of fans of the “sleaze glam” rock bands that had hit their peak. The album is sweet, the sweetest Shaw-era Heep album, with the drama of the choruses generally toned down. And yet “Different World” doesn’t deny the indispensable and unique Uriah Heep energy at a single, solitary point. All For One is a typical warm hard rock firestarter, irresistibly accessible, poured into a catchy mold of listenability, faithfully followed in the same vein by Step By Step, with a moment of respite in the title track. It really doesn’t get more melodic than this; most of Uriah Heep shines in all its glory on “Different World” too.
Bolder did an outstanding job, with a production that outdoes Dodd’s work on “Raging Silence” and suits the somewhat more “cheerful” approach to the songs perfectly. Despite the clear picture, the whole sound feels more organic, natural and alive compared to the pompous AOR sound of its predecessor. If nothing else does it, the bonus track Blood Red Roses will convince you, the song that opens “Raging Silence” in the original. This version on “Different World” is played once more (from scratch), but under Bolder’s production baton. The bass guitar is far more prominent across the album than on “Raging Silence”. Lanzon’s keyboards, especially the organ, also get more of the spotlight, and manage to conjure up the overall feeling that “Different World” is an album with a somewhat “softer” sonic direction than its predecessor. The lazy Southern atmosphere in Seven Days is no stranger here, and even harmonicas sneak into it. Still, this is a typical hard rock album from head to toe, with a still very noticeable reliance on AOR melodies, especially, and again and again, in the choruses.
The album “Different World” doesn’t have quite the intense reality in drawing the characteristic dramatic Heep atmosphere that some of its predecessors do, or its successors “Sea Of Light” (1995) and “Sonic Origami” (1998), and yet it captures moments that lift it far above average, like Blood On Stone, then the title track, the excellent One By One with one of the most beautifully woven instrumental middle sections and a sudden shift in mood, and above all the sensually yearning half-ballad Cross That Line, which masterfully rounds off the album and is undoubtedly one of its peaks.
“Different World” remains an overlooked and underrated album in the Uriah Heep catalog, even though it’s an excellent piece of work. You could say, superficially, that the guys allowed themselves a bit more experimenting back then. This should have been the album that confirmed the successful reception of “Raging Silence” and contributed to the band’s further (renewed) popularization. The failure was down to the horribly unenviable financial situation of Legacy Records, the label Uriah Heep were tied to by contract at the time. It was just then struggling under a mountain of debt, so there was no time left for promoting this album as a band. In this period the band racked up a long stretch of stage mileage, but touring likewise brought no visible success in terms of winning back even a smidgen of the band’s former popularity. In my opinion, “Different World” is less interesting to listeners because it lacks that characteristic dramatic, bombastic atmosphere of “Raging Silence” or “Sea Of Light”, with which Uriah Heep know how to “Heepnotize” so uniquely. It’s simply the missing link between the two, which most eyeballs happily overlook.
Lineup
Bernie Shaw – vocals
Phil Lanzon – keyboards, backing vocals
Mick Box – guitar
Trevor Bolder – bass guitar, backing vocals
Lee Kerslake – drums, backing vocals
Production
Trevor Bolder
Tracklist
1. Blood On Stone (4:38)
2. Which Way Will The Wind Blow (4:52)
3. All God’s Children (4:20)
4. All For One (4:27)
5. Different World (4:15)
6. Step By Step (4:07)
7. Seven Days (3:35)
8. First Touch (3:54)
9. One On One (4:05)
10. Cross That Line (5:35)
Running time: 43:48
BONUS TRACKS ON THE 1998 REMASTERED EDITION:
1. Stand Back (3:59) included on the original cd only
2. Blood Red Roses (3:52) remixed ’90 version
3. Hold Your Head Up (4:21) single version
4. Rockarama (10:03) Live ’87, previously unreleased
