Search - Uriah Heep :: Live in Europe (Reis)

Better than expect but stil not good

kireviewer | Sunnyvale, Ca United States | 01/19/2008

(2 out of 5 stars)

"This is teken from Uriah Heep's tour of Europe in 1979. The first CD release came out in 1987 (I don't know if it ever was released as a LP). The 1987 release was a single CD with a cheap looking cover. This CD has a number of "bonus tracks". The total playing time is 115 minutes.



The biggest problem with this CD is that the sound quality is poor. It is not the worst live CD out there. It is not as bad as Black Sabbath's Live At Last or Hawkwind's Early Daze. But, it is still not what would be expected from a professional release.



The bass is particularly bad. It does not sound like it was recorded off of the sound board, but more like the echo off of the back of the auditorium. In places, the keyboards and guitar are drowned out. What is good is that there is not much audience noise. What is bad is that the audience is not loud enough during the audience participation parts.



This is the 1979 version of Uriah Heep with John Lawton (fomerly of Lucifer's Friend) on vocals. He is OK in parts, but does not do so well in other parts. He certainly cannot sing the old classic songs as well as David Byron did. The bassist is Trevor Bolder, who played on many David Bowie albums. He can be a dominate player in parts and brings a different sound to the band at times.



The performance on this CD is not as good as earlier Heep, such as the 1973 live album. But, there are some very good moments on ths set.



The two best things are a 12 minute Sweet Lorraine and an 8 minute Lady In Black. The funny thing about these songs is that they are sing along's. It is kind of annoying, but it is also the only times the band really opens up and connects with the audience.



Look At Yourself, Who Needs Me and Wizard are all very nice.



The band does a mediocre to horrible job on some of the classics like July Morning and especially Gypsy. That one of the things that makes this CD not very good. Many of the songs are on the earlier 1973 Live album and are done much better. Why do we need another version of these songs, especially when the band is just going through the motions.



Most of the bonus material on the CD are the same songs, just taken from different concerts. There is not much difference between the different versions of the song. Lady in Black from a January show sounds pretty much like the Lady in Black from a March show. The only realy difference is the bonus version of Gypsy. It sounds like the group is going into a jam, but it just starts to fade out after 3 minutes.



Many of the new songs are just not that good. Cheat N Lie starts out really good, but the chorus is pretty bland and popish.



Uriah Heep has always been a follower and a group trying to find its voice. The members of the group have admitted this in the past. There have been a Deep Purple clone right down to the make up of the group (five piece group with drums, guitar, bass, keyboards and vocalist). They dabbled in copying Pink Floyd (Salisbury is thier take on Atom Heart Mother) and other groups. The new songs have a touch of Grand Funk Railroad and Boston.



I may sound rough, but I have always been a fan. They aren't the best progressive heavy metal band, but they still can put out some good stuff. I still think Salisbury is one of the better long songs in rock history.



I would give this CD 3 stars for peformance, but knock it down to 2 for the poor sound quality."