Search - Uriah Heep :: Time of Revelation: 25 Years on

Revelations Of A Hard Rock Diehard

Chris Gerbig | Ontario, Canada | 09/16/2000

(4 out of 5 stars)

"The real hook of this 4 CD boxed set is PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED TRACKS (about 20 of em). And not the same ones as on the remasters either. That makes it essential to the Uriah Heep collector. Spanning the Heep catalog up to 1996 in 63 tracks, it also comes with a colorful 60 page booklet full of band history, photos and discography. The set kicks off with 3 tracks by pre-Uriah Heep band Spice: "In Love" and "What About The Music" from their 1968 45 single and a previously unreleased demo version of "Born In A Trunk". The track selection is very strong, though Castle does some smart marketing by not including EVERY classic Heep song you'd want to hear (example: No "Love Machine" or "That's The Way That It Is"). And they do include some you may not particularly want to hear (from the weakest periods of the group). Great vintage tracks like "Gypsy", "Lady In Black", "July Morning", "Look At Yourself", "Easy Livin'", "The Wizard" are all here as you'd expect. The big treat for me, being a fan of John Lawton, is that there are a dozen tracks from that era, including 3 songs from their incomplete "Five Miles" recording sessions of 1979. And how "A Far Better Way" didn't make it on to the Firefly album is a mystery to these ears! The final disc spans the 80's and 90's and does a fairly good job of representing this patchy period in the band's career. The absence of "That's The Way That It Is" is glaring, though. All songs are remastered, which is really great if, like me, most of your Uriah Heep collection is still on vinyl. A great piece of heavy rock history. With a more inclusive track selection, this would push a 5 Star rating. As it stands, it's a collector's set and not an easy starting point for the newer fan."