Uriah Heep's Classic Gets Remastered Plus 5 Bonus Tracks!
highway_star | Hallandale, Florida United States | 07/20/2003
(5 out of 5 stars)
"When "Demons And Wizards" was released in 1972, Uriah Heep was quickly reaching stardom not only in their native England, but also in America. They had already released three excellent albums prior to "Demons And Wizards" and while it is one of Uriah Heep's best albums, it yielded only one hit in the U.S. with "Easy Livin". The album consists of some excellent acoustic guitar based tracks such as "The Wizard" and "Paradise" as well as some powerful electric guitar driven rockers such as "Traveller In Time", "Easy Livin'", "Poet's Justice", "Circle Of Hands","All My Life" and "The Spell". This "Expanded Deluxe Edition" of "Demons And Wizards" includes five bonus tracks, most of which were previously unreleased until now. "Why" is a ten minute track which highlights vocalist David Byron's vocals,Gary Thain's bass, and Ken Hensley's keyboards. "Rainbow Demon" is the single edit, "Proud Word's On A Dusty Shelf" is a nice pop type rocker and is an "out-take". "Home Again To You" and "Green Eye" again are unreleased tracks, both are interesting rockers. Uriah Heep continued to release some decent albums after "Demons And Wizards" going thru various member changes and continues to record today. But one thing is for sure, the definitive Uriah Heep lineup of Hensley, Box, Kerslake, Byron and Thain will always remain the best that there was. The sound quality of this version of "Demons And Wizards" is the best this reviewer has heard, with crisp highs, deep bass and higher output. The remastering surpasses the other remasters I've heard. If you enjoy classic seventies rock such as Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, and Black Sabbath then you owe it to yourself to add this cd to your collection."
Remaster has almost as much new music as the original.
A reader from NY | Roseboom, NY USA | 04/05/2005
(5 out of 5 stars)
"In addition to the classic 8/9 songs of the original album, the 2005 has 5 bonus tracks. Of which only one is a repeat of an original song (Rainbow Demon).
Why is a great piece of early 70's psychdelia. It's a 12 minute track that could have been on the original album. The bass playing is fantastic, though even the band doesn't know who played bass on this track (Clarke, Thain, or even Newton.
Proud Words on a Dusty Shelf was originally on a Ken Hensley solo album, but David Bryon and the rest of the band add an extra dimension to it.
Home to You Again is another good rocker.
Green Eye is a little rough around the edges, but is still a good song."
Dark & mysterious
S. Smith | Sanford, ME United States | 06/03/2005
(5 out of 5 stars)
"I love this friggin' album! Sometimes it's reminiscent of the first Sabbath, nice and gloomy. There really isn't a low spot on the album and the bonus tracks are certainly worth a few extra bucks, not to mention the sound quality."
Track Listings (14) - Disc #1