INNOCENT VICTIM

I must honestly say that since "The Magician's Birthday", the Heep did not produce anything really great in terms of studio album. This one will be no exception. The opener "Keep on Ridin'" is absolutely awful : a combination of gospel / soul with desperate rock flavour. Definitely not the type of song one is expecting form the Heep. "Flyin' High" is a boring pop / FM rock tune with no feeling nor sensibility. "Roller" is a good bluesy/rocky track : again, very close to the Purple production of the Mark III era. It is one of the best song of the album : violent as they could be, fantastic tempo, great keys.

Every time the Heep will try and replay "Easy Livin", it will be one of the best song of the album. "Free'n'Easy" won't be different. A phenomenal beat, with some crazy guitar and bass (of course, even if there is again a new bass p^layer). It is a true Heep song with all its grandeur. Wow !

Total contrast with "Illusion" : this one is a mellow FM rock ballad of limited interest. "Free Me" is another soul oriented song which sounds very poor and little Heep to my ears. I guess that we have to be happy with a track like "Cheat 'n' Lie" : good rock song with an OK chorus. We won't get much better here, I'm afraid. Well, actually the closing number is very good : "Choices" has great vocals, superb guitar from Box and good supporting keys. This makes a total of three good songs for the whole album.

An EP would have made it (would have then being rated as four stars). The only reason why I am still commenting this band (as I do with others) is that I believe it is also worthwhile to provide comments even if they are not too positive.

I have been a great Heep fan in the early seventies. This band has been extremely prolific since their start : eleven studio albums and three (recorded but not published) live ones in seven years ! But this will be at the cost of quality.

To be complete, I must admit that the longer version for "Illusion" including a section called "Masquerade" and available on the remastered version is not bad at all.

The year of release, 1977, is of course the year during which a lot of things will change. I guess there was little room for a band like Heep. Two stars.