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Uriah Heep: Demons and Wizzards

 A l b u m   D e t a i l s


Label: Sanctuary Records
Released: 1972.01.23
Time:
 66:02
Category: Hard Rock
Producer(s): See Artists ...
Rating: *****..... (5/10)
Media type: CD
Web address: www.uriah-heep.com
Appears with:
Purchase date: 2007.05.12
Price in €: 11,99



 S o n g s ,   T r a c k s


[1] The Wizard (Clarke/Hensley) - 2:59
[2] Traveller in Time (Box/Byron/Kerslake) - 3:25
[3] Easy Livin' (Hensley) - 2:37
[4] Poet's Justice (Box/Hensley/Kerslake) - 4:15
[5] Circle of Hands (Hensley) - 6:25
[6] Rainbow Demon (Hensley) - 4:25
[7] All My Life (Box/Byron/Kerslake) - 2:44
[8] Paradise (Hensley) - 5:10
[9] The Spell (Hensley) - 7:31

Bonus Tracks:
[10] Why (Uriah Heep) -10:34
[11] Rainbow Deamon (Hensley) - 3:36
[12] Proud Words on a Dusty Shelf (Hensley) - 2:51
[13] Home again to You (Hensley) - 5:26
[14] Green Eye (Hensley) - 3:46

 A r t i s t s ,   P e r s o n n e l


David Byron - Vocals
Mick Box - Guitar
Ken Hensley - Guitar, Percussion, Keyboards, Vocals, Liner Notes
Lee Kerslake - Percussion, Drums
Gary Thain - Bass, Bass Guitar

Gerry Bron - Producer
Peter Gallen - Engineer
Ashley Howe - Assistant Engineer
Roger Dean - Design, Photography, Drawing
Dominy Hamilton - Photography

 C o m m e n t s ,   N o t e s


1972 LP Mercury SRM-1-630
1992 CD Castle CA108
1992 CS Mercury 812297-4
2005 LP Earmark 410400
2006 CD Sanctuary 372

Recorded at Landsdowne Studios, London in March and April, 1972. Includes liner notes by Ken Hensley.

Although renowned heavy metal singer Ronnie James Dio would become the eventual undisputed "expert" on dungeons, dragons, and wizards, one of the first heavy metal bands to tackle such subject matter was Uriah Heep on their 1972 release, DEMONS AND WIZARDS. But just as the band went "medieval" on us, they also issued their best straight-ahead rocker (and biggest U.S. hit), "Easy Livin," which was eventually covered by '80s shock rockers W.A.S.P. Other Heep highlights include the album-opening folk rocker "The Wizard" (not the same similarly-titled song by another British metal band--Black Sabbath) and the space rocker "Traveller in Time."



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 1970s update of classic 1960s 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 Mick Box. 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.

Donald A. Guarisco - All Music Guide



It's a strange time. Formerly exciting rock groups have gone musically soft, if not well on the road to outright senility, making the moniker of hard rock almost a contradiction in terms when applied to old survivors from the Sixties. But this is 1972, not 1960 something. Most of the excitement around these days is still happening in the hard rock field, and nothing in recent months proves this fact more conclusively than Uriah Heep's new album, Demons and Wizards.

To be honest, for a while I didn't think these guys were going to make it. Uriah Heep started out as awful as any group crawling out of the Cream/Jeff Beck age of British blues excess: a bit of de blooze, a few Cream cops, some poorly-conceived heavy riffs a familiar musical formula employed by not a few groups. Starting with their third album, Look At Yourself (generally monotonous but with several genuinely exciting tracks) and particularly this new album, Uriah Heep have finally gotten into their own distinctive style.

Just what Uriah Heep's style consists of, it's hard to say. The vocals are psychedelic and quavering, the guitar and rhythm section is English heavy metal rock, and Ken Hensley's organ is employed in a fashion faintly similar to Deep Purple. But then in places they sound a bit like early Procol Harum, and you forget about categories altogether. These guys are good. The first side of Demons and Wizards is simply odds-on the finest high energy workout of the year so far, tying nose and nose with the Blue Oyster Cult.

Not an ordinary song in the lot: "Easy Livin'" is a flat out fuzz-tone punk rocker, "The Wizard" is almost a combination of psychedelia (the lyrics and phased vocals) and folk rock, and the remaining three cuts on the side are generally similar in that they combine hard rock with good melodic hooks. "Traveler in Time" particularly shines in this respect.

All in all, it's an entrancing side of rock & roll. The tightness of the music is stunning at times; what few instrumental breaks there are, are concise and to the point. When I saw the group live at the Whiskey recently, these cuts were truly exciting and easily the highlight of their stage repertoire.

Side two is less outstanding, but still OK. The first two cuts are generally satisfying medium-tempo hard rock, and "Paradise/The Spell" is a long track composed of two six-minute segments. Though its high moments are scattered. it's totally listenable (no mean feat for twelve minutes) and shows off organist-songwriter-leader Ken Hensley's (the only star in Uriah Heep, but like a friend said, it's hard to be a star sitting down) various conceptual ambitions. Come to think of it, even the cover of this album is niftily psychedelic.

When I was a kid I used to read a lot about party records, with particular Stones albums always seeming to be mentioned as great party albums. Well, the party's still going and by virtue of its solid 40 minutes of energy and clatter you might call it brilliantly realized monotony in places Demons and Wizards has got to be the party album of the year so far. They may have started out as a thoroughly dispensable neo-Cream & Blooze outfit, but at this point Uriah Heep are shaping up into one hell of a first-rate modern rock band. (RS 122)

MIKE SAUNDERS  - Nov 23, 1972
Rolling Stone
 

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