Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Artist: Uriah Heep
Label: Sanctuary Records
Release: 2008
Rating: 4/5
A solid 10 years have gone by since the last studio album from Birmingham legends Uriah Heep. That was “Sonic Origami” (1998). In the meantime Uriah Heep never stopped touring, and they also put out a heap of live recordings. This past winter, after an unusually long stretch of rock-solid stability lasting almost 22 years, the lineup changed. Big teddy bear Lee Kerslake left the band, and they beefed up with the younger Russell Gilbrook.
“Wake The Sleeper” surprises with an incredibly live-sounding production. That’s the first thing you notice, and right from the start it clearly sets the new album apart from its finely polished nineties predecessors. It feels like the band gathered up all the material written in the 10 years between “Sonic Origami” and now, then one day completely unplanned locked themselves in the studio, knocked it all out super fast and got it down on tape. Along the way they keep all their trademark traits, which together let them write a totally unique brand of hard rock, one whose peculiarities earn it the noble “art” prefix. And yet “Wake The Sleeper” is a completely different, freshly sounding album.
On “Wake The Sleeper” the classic Hammond feel “comes back” more than at any point since the long-gone days when Ken Hensley left the band. Probably most of all because keyboardist Phil Lanzon co-wrote most of the new songs. Together with Box’s unmistakable guitar style, diligently glued to his wah-wah crutches, Lanzon’s contribution this time managed to move the sound of the new record closer to that seventies nostalgia, when the band, with its most successful albums, wrote itself into rock history in golden letters for good. This coexistence of massive Hammond keyboard layering and Mick’s trademark guitar phrases works perfectly. Lanzon practically scrapped synthesizers when working up the new arrangements, and the band’s policy this time was clearly to make the most natural-sounding album possible. Not only that. They managed to make one of their darkest albums, and not just since 1986, but of their entire career. The vocal harmonies do show a bit that Lee Kerslake is no longer in the band, since they’ve lost some of that characteristic finesse, but on a far more organic album you don’t really miss it. Shaw is as perfect and polished as ever, while Trevor Bolder’s highly melodic bass lines remain one of the main driving forces, bringing a big dose of dynamics and motivic flow to Uriah Heep’s music.
“Wake The Sleeper” surprises right out of the gate, when the guys kick it off with a three-and-a-half-minute instrumental of the same name. Let me say right away that this very instrumental can annoy plenty of people. Personally, I always “pre-skip” it to the next track. Basically it’s a snippet from one of the studio jam sessions that the band found really interesting. It’s noisy and chaotic and oiled up in a proper “hop-gallop” gear, but its repetitive basic pattern gets annoying pretty quickly and feels forced. Overload is where the album really starts. Box’s impressive basic wah guitar pattern soon grows on top of a dynamic rhythm foundation, and when Shaw joins in with his warm, soulful vocals, Uriah Heep magic is born once again. The album’s faster songs, Tears Of The World, which keeps the album’s high marching pace in its opening part, and Ghost Of The Ocean in the second half, with a galloping rhythm shining through like a legacy of Lee Kerslake that even conjures up similar gems from the distant past like Free ‘N’ Easy or Easy Livin’, are balanced out by mostly mid-tempo songs, all of which carry highly polished basic motifs and that typical build-up of mood through the pre-chorus, exploding into a peak within the choruses. That’s why it’s rather hard to pick personal favorites this time, which is otherwise the standard with Uriah Heep as far as the perfection of the last three albums goes. The album’s closing stretch is especially dark, in the rocky, rolling Angels Walk With You, and onward in Shadow and War Child, which have an extraordinary combination of dramatic moment. This time the creation of that dark atmosphere brings the album closer to Uriah Heep albums of the seventies. Also worth highlighting is the album’s longest song, What Kind Of God, which tells of the exodus of Native Americans, where the band once again confirms its refined ability to build up dramatic mood. After a first part where Shaw’s deeply felt vocals stand out in particular, the song hits its peak in the second part, after the mood breaks into a new experience, with an extraordinary Mick pattern where two wah-wah lines are recorded together. Both form an extraordinary riff curtain, reinforced by Lanzon’s Hammond. The moment conjured up in the song’s outro echoes the Against The Odds atmosphere of the album “Sea Of Light” (1995). To those of you used to the sound of “Sonic Origami”, or who expected something similar from Uriah Heep with the new album, I can promise you’ll be winning this album over for a good while longer, and for those of you who come to the band’s predecessors unburdened, I can say that “Wake The Sleeper” will get under your skin in a heartbeat.
Uriah Heep haven’t disappointed in the slightest with the new album. They managed to get out a new, different and fresh-sounding album, with all the recognizable trademarks that adorn this band. Overall, the album contains fewer moments of improvisation or musical exploration (fewer solos or instrumental playing – the intros and outros of the songs in particular are simplified), a bit less art subtlety and sonic perfection. For those of you who count Uriah Heep among the progressive bands, this is a less progressive album, insofar as we can talk about progressive rock with Uriah Heep at all. But “Wake The Sleeper” is an album with an intriguing mix of big epic melodies, tied to an obscure, darkly accented feel of tight interplay between guitar phrasing and Hammond moments, which brings “Wake The Sleeper” close to the magic of Uriah Heep albums from the first half of the seventies. This is a great new album that, with its compactness and polish, directly challenges the high musical peaks the band reached with “Sonic Origami” (1998) and “Sea Of Light” (1995). “Wake The Sleeper” is an album that stirs up special feelings while you listen, and enthusiasm for discovering the one-of-a-kind Uriah Heep magic that goes on and on, and the guys are nowhere near having said their last word with it. Oh, if only this magic could touch the totally creatively drained Deep Purple, even for a moment.
Lineup
Bernie Shaw – vocals, backing vocals
Mick Box – guitar, backing vocals
Phil Lanzon – keyboards, backing vocals
Trevor Bolder – bass guitar, backing vocals
Russell Gilbrook – drums, backing vocals
Production
Mike Paxman
Track list
1. Wake The Sleeper
2. Overload
3. Tears Of The World
4. Light Of A Thousand Stars
5. Heaven’s Rain
6. Book Of Lies
7. What Kind Of God
8. Ghost Of The Ocean
9. Angels Walk With You
10. Shadow
11. War Child
Running time: 50.44
