So it’s been forty years since Uriah Heep first began their musical journey and what a journey it’s been, taking in such wonderful albums as ‘Salisbury’, ‘Demons And Wizards’, ‘The Magician’s Birthday’ and more recently ‘Sea Of Light’ and ‘Wake The Sleeper.’ It’s definitely a career worthy of an album like ‘Celebration’ that features newly recorded studio renditions of classic songs and a couple of brand new numbers as well.
The album opens with a new track called ‘Only Human’ and it sounds bright, vibrant and full of hope for the future. It single-handedly stops this album from being just a look back to past glories and adds an element of anticipation for what the band can still achieve and create.
The first of the old classics we come to is ‘Bird Of Prey’, my all time favourite Heep song. It’s a dynamic, energetic rendition that impresses as much as ever, but perversely gives rise to my one and only gripe with this fine collection. The band have opted to leave out some of the more histrionic vocal touches that graced the original version of the song. Now this is an understandable move but it still left me feeling a touch unfulfilled at the song’s conclusion. When you’re dealing with songs that have been cherished by fans for decades you’re always going to get a few old gits moaning about a slight change in vocal inflection, a passage in a solo played with a minute difference in emphasis…it just goes with the territory I guess. Anyway, enough of the nit-picking; overall this is a glorious, well, celebration of some of Uriah Heep’s finest creations. ‘Sunrise’, ‘Stealin’’ and ‘The Wizard’ are presented alongside some less obvious choices like ‘Between Two Worlds’, the opening track from their ’98 album ‘Sonic Origami’ and they all sound fresh and revitalized. What better way to prove to a whole new generation of rock fans that Uriah Heep are still relevant, still capable of delivering outstanding, exciting music and are still well worth investigating. Of course this collection underlines again that Uriah Heep are deserving of great respect for their past achievements but far more importantly it makes it crystal clear that this is a band with a bright future as well as a glorious history. The second new song on offer is entitled ‘Corridors Of Madness’ and it’s an atmospheric, moody, slow burning track that again will have fans of the band salivating in anticipation for the next all new Heep studio offering. Bernie Shaw’s vocal performance on this gem of a song is absolutely superb. So, a thoroughly enjoyable album that brings together some lively re-recordings of much-loved classics with a couple of hints of exciting things to come. I would say here’s to another forty years but that might be being a tad over optimistic even for the indefatigable Mick Box…
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