CONQUEST

It has to be said, Uriah Heep is one of the most inconsistent bands around. I have always embraced them, loved them and found them to be both interesting and dull. When Uriah Heep reaches their highs there are few bands to rival their greatness. But when they hit rock bottom (as they more than occasionally do) they do hit it hard. Throughout their career, at least up to Raging Silence in 1989 where I sort of left them by the roadside, their albums was an equal mix of highs and pretty darn lows. Still, they made a few albums really solid (like Demons and Wizards) and quite a few 50/50 records (like Sweet freedom or Innocent victim). But no matter how low some of the material turned out, the remaining tracks were and still are fantastically progressive rock, able to outweigh these dips in quality. For every boogie and boring hard rock-ish song there was these amazing pillars of prog. That was true, anyway, up to a point. When the band entered the 1980's they headed for the more mainstream arenas, moving away (sadly) from prog. The albums remained sort of interesting anyway but Conquest proved to be the least interesting of them all. Apart from the opener "No return" the album was a bland collection of songs really saying nothing. I find myself baffled by the lack of any memorable songs. I like the opener a lot, thinking it showed some promise, but the remainder of songs really does not affect me in any way. I can't say they're bad, since I can't seem to remember any of them. I can't even judge them when hearing them. They are that bland. It's like getting a bowl of air after a decent starter. Conquest. It is sort of an irony in the title. All they conquered was a hilltop of nothingness in a landscape called Bland. Too bad.