Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Regardless of when you may have first come across Uriah Heep, it is an argument worth having that they have been unfortunately been forgotten by many as one of the pioneers of British Heavy Rock and part of The Progressive movement.

Influential on many and yet the popularity of Mick Box’s band has never really attained, especially in later years the popularity they so deserved aside from having many totally enamoured with a couple of early 1970s albums including the superb Salisbury.  Whether the latest release by Uriah Heep, the elegant sounding Outsider, can change that perhaps remains to be seen but in a world that allows certain acts that have gone on reality television shows to garner a following, then surely Uriah Heep can have another sojourn in the unknown world of popular Rock music.

The silver age of British Rock may have passed the band by, certainly in respects when compared to Iron Maiden for example but Mick Box, as the sole remaining member from the initial foray of the group, has never given anything less than his best and had demanded much of all who have trod the path of Uriah Heep.

Outsider may be the precise perfect name for the album, an accurate description of those who won’t give the group a second glance and who might even think that they sound like a couple of various other bands of the same genre; that would be a disservice to a group that has been around in one form or another for over 40 years, outsiders they may be but the underdog always has their day eventually and with Mick Box, Phil Lazzon, Bernie Shaw, Russell Gilbrook and Dave Rimmer pounding away at the heart of any Rock fan who hasn’t bought an album of theirs for many years like a deliberator working overtime for the pure energy and thrill of it, it is fair to say that overall the album is as good and direct as they have done for many years.

There is no let-up in performance, no toning down of beat or lyrical bounty. Tracks such as The Law, Rock The Foundations, Is Anybody Gonna Help Me?, the superb Jesse and Kiss The Rainbow really get the heart pacing and for a while the listener can only dream of what really might have been. There will always be those that knock great old bands such as Uriah Heep, ignore them, put in a pair of earphones, or better still throw open the windows, place a large finger up in the detractors direction and sit back and enjoy the sounds on offer, pile on the bass, crank up the vocals and let the re-introduction begin.

Ian D. Hall