Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Artist: Uriah Heep
Label: Bronze Records
Released: 1982
Rating: 3/5
After the “Conquest” tour, all that was left of Uriah Heep was founding member Mick Box (guitar) and bassist Trevor Bolder. With a deal for a new record in their pockets, the two headed straight for the languishing David Byron, whose solo career hadn’t exactly been a bed of roses, and begged him to rejoin his old band. Byron turned them down, Bolder grabbed an offer from Wishbone Ash, and Box was left completely on his own. Crushed, Mick locks himself in his apartment for two days and gets through the disappointment dead drunk. Uriah Heep are clinically, totally dead. Agents try to talk Box into a solo career and the guy is already cooking up The Mick Box Band. But he feels that the only real way forward is to revive Uriah Heep, and plenty of still-loyal “heepfans” are egging him on too. First to come to Box’s rescue is his old buddy from the golden “Heep days”, Lee Kerslake, who comes back from Ozzy Osbourne’s camp. Next is the Australian Bob Daisley (Widowmaker), who had also played with Kerslake before on Ozzy Osbourne’s debut “The Blizzard Of Ozz” (1980). John Sinclair joins on keyboards (he’d played in Heavy Metal Kids and Lion), and the fifth member is Pete Goalby (Trapeze), who had already turned up at the Uriah Heep audition to replace Lawton, but back then the band went with John Sloman.
The resurrected Uriah Heep are a brand-new figure on the rock scene. All that ties them to the seventies are the multi-part vocal arrangements, which were hugely popular back then and especially in demand on the booming AOR scene. The songs, though, got a proper dose of dynamics, rock punch and enviable atmosphere back. Under the influence of the N.O.W.B.H.M. boom, Heep went metal, and in a modern “eighties” production the guitar riffing is, for the first time in the band’s history, shoved drastically up front. The keyboards carry tasteful new wave synth-pop tunes, which was super fashionable too, while organ attacks beef up the record’s otherwise heavy sound. The tracks are an adrenaline rush and the album is pure rock therapy, deserving the title of a true “comeback” album. “Abominog” (“careless, loathsome” in translation) laid out the direction right from Too Scared To Run, one Uriah Heep have kept in their new guise pretty much to this day (seven years have passed since the release of “Sonic Origami” (1998), Uriah Heep’s latest studio album). The production has gorgeous contrasts between the melodic, fat bass line, Lee’s explosive drums and Mick’s white-hot riffing. Here it’s interesting to ask what Heep would have sounded like with Hensley. With “Innocent Victim” (1977), Hensley started reaching for the guitar more and more (live too). Hensley was the favorite in the band as the writer of most arrangements, especially in the Lawton-era Uriah Heep. And then he slowly took over the guitar as well. That squeezed Box’s room for his own expression tighter and tighter. With “Abominog”, though, Box is once again churning out long, heartfelt solos, there isn’t a psychedelic slide guitar in sight, and the riffing is more explosive than ever before. It speaks of the remarkable freshness brought by the newly found musical enthusiasm and self-confidence of the guitarist around whom the new Uriah Heep grew. It’s more than obvious that Box is finally breathing with full lungs again after a long time. And no doubt Kerslake is too, having left the band in 1979 precisely because of disagreements with Hensley. You could feel positive working chemistry all around, and every member of the band took part in writing all the songs on ‘Abominog’. Half of them are covers, and reworked in Uriah Heep’s hands they sound downright bombastic. Worth singling out among them is Hot Nights In The Cold Town, a true AOR beauty.
That’s The Way That It Is is the only slightly mellower moment; otherwise “Abominog” is a proper rock stomper from start to finish. Heep sound modern and fresh, Hot Persuassion is a real heavy machine gun backed by cowbell and a venomous guitar riff in the middle. Goalby’s voice is leathery, velvety, slightly raspy, with fantastic phrasing, always heartfelt, and it fits the melodic side of the newborn band phenomenally. The record is rounded off by the excellent Think It Over, which the band had already played with Sloman. The “Abominog” version with Goalby and the reborn guitar, plus the finished piano arrangements, is finally the real deal. “Abominog” is a heavy AOR record of wonderfully polished, fluid rock compositions, with a full dose of melody and a proper dramatic edge. Many seventies giants literally got lost on the scene in their new ‘eighties’ outfits, despite their commercial success, Genesis or Yes for example. “Abominog”, though, is a great rock lesson for 1982, and with it Uriah Heep saved not just their name but also their rebuilt, yet always recognizable, face.
Lineup
Peter Goalby – vocals
John Sinclair – keyboards, backing vocals
Mick Box – guitar, backing vocals
Bob Daisley – bass guitar, backing vocals
Lee Kerslake – drums, backing vocals
Production
Ashley Howe
Track list
1. Too Scared To Run (3:47)
2. Chasing Shadows (4:38)
3. On The Rebound (3:13)
4. Hot Night In A Cold Town (3:57)
5. Running All Night (With The Lion) (4:24)
6. That’s The Way That It Is (4:04)
7. Prisoner (4:27)
8. Hot Persuasion (3:45)
9. Sell Your Soul (5:22)
10. Think It Over (3:33)
Album length: 42:10
BONUS TRACKS ON THE 1997 REMASTERED EDITION:
1. Tin Soldier (3:49) single b-side
2. Son Of A Bitch (4:08) single b-side
3. That’s The Way That It Is (4:27) demo version, previously unreleased
4. Hot Persuasion (4:04) demo version, previously unreleased
