It’s an impressive debut and fans of the band will surely enjoy having the record in picture disc format. With an eclectic array of compositions on offer, fans of heavy (or should that be ‘eavy?) metal’s origins will find much to admire in Gypsy, Dreammare and Wake Up, while students of bluesier hard rock will equally go a bundle on Come Away Melinda and Walking in Your Shadow. The album concludes with Wake Up (Set Your Sights), a track that opens with huge, stair-stepping chords before traversing the worlds of jazz and blues (always maintaining that hard rock edge) on its way to the album’s run out groove.Ī hugely influential album, … Very ‘Eavy Very ‘Umble… remains as thrilling today as when it was released. The sprightly I’ll Keep on Trying is a fascinating piece of music, straddling the divide between heavy rock and heavy prog, the band deftly switching between styles across the track. Certainly, there’s little to date the track beyond the slightly treble-heavy production, and it’s another example of the influence the Heep have had on bands across the years. Keeping things heavy, the wired riff of Real Turned On has a lascivious edge to it that may well have proved too much for 1970s audiences. Kicking off side two, the effervescent heavy pop-rock of Dreammare explodes into action, with vocal harmonies and sparkling riffs getting the blood pumping. Speaking of variety, the first side ends with a passable stab at jazz-infused blues on Lucy Blues, the warble of the organ and textured piano neatly offset by the prowling bass and David Byron’s subtly worn vocal. It’s hard to believe, listening now, that reviewers of the period could be so obtuse as to ignore the variety on offer here, making you wonder if they ever got as far as this rather more mellifluous piece of music before employing their poison pens. In contrast, Come Away Melinda is a pastoral, proggy number, showing a sensitive side to the band suitably hidden beneath the hulking riffs of the opening tracks.
Following on, Walking in Your Shadow has an unenviable task, with the band opting for a bluesier sound with a Rory Gallagher edge to it. It’s a hell of a start, suggesting an influence on everyone from Candlemass to Opeth, and it’s easy to imagine why the listeners of the day may well have been baffled by its sheer intensity. The album kicks off with the stabbing proto metal of Gypsy, an awkward, angular piece of music, which has more in common with King Crimson than the typical hard rock of the day, although the organ insanity of the mid-section does much to eschew subtlety in favour of ear-shredding intensity. In all honesty, it’s all but inaudible as the amps kick into action, but it is there and, particularly on the quieter passages of the more sonically restrained Salisbury, it does become noticeable. While there are very few clicks and pops evident amidst the sturm und drang, quieter passages reveal a low-level rumble that persists across the recording.
With regard the musical front, picture discs do have the unfortunate reputation of being inferior in sound quality to standard pressings and this proves to be the case here. Such gaffes aside, it’s the music that counts and it’s reasonable to suppose that the target market for these releases already have several copies of the album on LP, Cassette and CD tucked away within their collections already, making additional information somewhat superfluous.
#SALISBURY URIAH HEEP SERIES#
This review covers the first two albums in the series and, as is common with picture disc releases, each of the albums is housed in a simple, clear sleeve, with a sticker strip on the left-hand side containing the barest information and, in this case, incorrectly stating that the album contains the single Bird Of Prey – actually on follow up album Salisbury. Now recognised as a milestone on the route march towards metal, it has been reissued countless times, reappearing here alongside its follow up, 1971’s Salisbury, as part of an extended vinyl reissue campaign from BMG, offering the band’s albums in gorgeous picture disc format.
Time has been kind to Uriah Heep’s 1970 debut, … Very ‘Eavy Very ‘Umble… an album that was originally rather mauled critically (most notably by a Rolling Stone reviewer who threatened suicide should the band prove successful).
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