DEMONS AND WIZARDS

"Demons and Wizards" is the 4th full-length studio album by UK hard rock act Uriah Heep. The album was released through Bronze Records in the UK and Mercury Records in the US in May 1972. "Demons and Wizards" turned out to be Uriah Heep´s breakthrough in the US and the album is to date their best-selling album in the that country (500.000 copies). To this date it has sold around 3 million copies worldwide.

The music is semi-progressive organ and guitar driven hard rock. Strong vocals and vocal harmonies grace the album throughout. As the case were with both "Salisbury (1971)" and "Look at Yourself (1971)", the album features both hard rocking tracks and more semi-progressive ones. The short effective hard rock track "Easy Livin'" became quite a big hit and it´s easy to hear why. It´s quite a catchy track and a powerful rocker to boot. As mentioned there is more to "Demons and Wizards" than catchy hard rock tracks. Check out a heavy rocker like "Rainbow demon", or the last couple of minutes of "Circle Of Hands" to hear the semi-progressive side of the band´s sound.

While the instrumental part of the music is impressive enough and delivered with the right organic and technical skill, it´s the vocals by David Byron that always blow me away. There was a strong set of pipes on that man and in 1972 he was arguably in his prime. The album is graced with a strong, powerful, and organic sounding production and all in all "Demons and Wizards" is among the band´s best output and a 4 star (80%) rating is deserved.