SALISBURY

Wow, a true meaning of the genre, Heavy Prog. Along with 2112 by Rush, this is easily one of the heaviest of all progressive rock music, and one of the best. Beautiful electric guitar, acoustic, basslines pumping, and hammond organ screaming, this album has it all. David Byron's vocals have never sounded better on an album, but he manages to be amazing on every one of the albums released with him in the lineup. A masterpiece.

The opener "Bird of Prey" is simply stunning, though not as good as the american version. The guitar is frighting, and is one of the benchmarks in heavy metal music all around. David sings beautiful, with insane falsetto, switching with normal voice as well. The organ is awesome, and the bass line is very flowing with the overall music. "The Park" is a very jazzy tune, and is easily one of Uriah Heep's most sensative song. The 12-string guitar parts are amazing and make this song really unit into one. David's soft and falsetto vocals are truley inspiring, with some nice harmonies near the middle. The drums are soft and soothing, and the lyrics are simply amazing, an act of beautiful poetry. "Time to Love" takes it up a notch, with some heavy organs, and some nice guitar parts. It's the only real downpoint of the album, because it goes away from the overall agressive attack that the first song did, and the second song's very different song structure. The lyrics are okay, it's not all about sex and stuff, but it's not amazing. The wah-wah is awesome that Mick Box does in this one, great guitar playing all around. Not the best of the best. "Lady in Black" is a very country sound, with the chord changes sounding very bland like country seems to do. The lyrics are excellent, and the vocals are amazing, as usual with Uriah Heep songs. "High Priestess" is a great song, and is one of their more progressive moments on the album. Nice guitar intro, soft and has the feeling that makes you go into the song. The guitar solo after the soft intro is fast and electric, just before David starts to sing some amazing stuff. Ken Hensleys playing is always great, whatever he plays. Lyrics are pretty good, not the worst from the album. "Salisbury" is a full blown epic, and is one of Heeps best tracks to date. It clocks in at a little over sixteen minutes, and has some amazing orchestra throughout. The lyrics are simply stunning, and the band plays in top form. There is nothing that drags in the song, and is easily the best song on the album.

Though there are a few moments that are not as pretty as the others, this album is near perfection in Heavy Prog. The guitars distorted, vocal harmonies as loud as they can be, hammond organ shouting with all it's might, soothing basslines, and nice drums, this album is awesome. 5 stars, and is in a string of awesome albums that Heep would release.