DEMONS AND WIZARDS

I've never been a huge fan of Uriah Heep since I could never really determinate their musical direction. The band seems to prefer jumping all over the place and Demons And Wizards demonstrates these tendencies quite well.

The album starts off like a concept album that all of a sudden gets disrupted by Easy Livin' which is a great track but it sticks out like a sore thumb in this conceptual setting. After this minor change of pace we get back to the concept album's theme once more although this time the songs like Poet's Justice and All My Life sound too much like general rockers without any real thought or meaning to them. I might be missing some point here but I've honestly given up hope after hearing this album more than 15 times already.

Finally we get a pompous finale of Paradise/The Spell, but that is the point when I ask myself - "What is this dramatic finale all about?" and -"Am I missing something here"? Unfortunately this album is too disjointed for my tastes and in the end I feel like it promises a lot more then it actually delivers. I recommend Salisbury and the great Look At Yourself to anyone interested in hearing a really good Uriah Heep album and save Demons And Wizards for later.

***** star songs: Easy Livin' (2:36)

**** star songs: Traveller In Time (3:26) Circle Of Hands (6:34) Rainbow Demon (4:30) Paradise (5:15) The Spell (7:26)

*** star songs: The Wizard (2:59) Poet's Justice (4:14) All My Life (2:46)