07. Uriah Heep Abominog 1982 (Bronze)
Hard Rock
A synthesis of layered keys and heavy riffs.
Overview
Being one of the oldest bands in this journal, it’s always good to see such a band making a return to the limelight (albeit briefly) As Uriah Heep through multiple line-ups and musical directional changes, had pulled out every trick they knew to try and remain relevant to current musical trends, but sadly they had usually failed in this endeavour over the last several years. The band had been the perfect case of talented musicians coming in but usually the face just didn’t fit, largely because the core members of the band had always played in a somewhat idiosyncratic style. A style that had superbly combined their trademark 1970's brand of hard rock with the proggy trends of that era (just check out the band’s classic run
Look at Yourself 1971,
Demons and Wizards 1972 and
The Magician’s Birthday 1972 all reviewed along with other albums in this journal) factors which rubbished their original label of being known as a ‘Poor Man’s Led Zeppelin’ when they first came out. But by the late 1970s and early 1980s the band’s relevance to the heavy metal industry was largely debatable, largely due to a plethora of line-up changes and each album usually only managing a couple of good tracks, while the rest were largely below par filler. In fact only
Fallen Angel 1978 and the quality
Return to Fantasy 1975 had broken this depressing trend. In fact Kerrang! summed it up perfectly by stating that the band were a definite case of when they were good, they were very good, but when they were bad, they didn’t know when to stop…’
Abominog with its great name despite its gharish album cover, would be the band’s 14th studio album by 1982! (just think they’re still dishing out albums today which pushes the band up into the 20 something album count) The album is the first without mainstay member and keyboardist Ken Hensley who made way for John Sinclair. The other important addition is that of vocalist Peter Goalby (ex-Trapeze) who would sing lead vocals on this and the band’s next three albums. The band would also see the return of drummer Lee Kerslake who brought with him Bob Daisley on bass, where both had previously worked with Ozzy Osbourne (as you can see another huge line-up change was taking place) Stylistically the band had partially given up their not very successful middle of the road half-baked AOR inspired hard rock and were now choosing their AOR themed stuff better and taking their other cue from a logical source in the NWOBHM, such a shame that fellow oldies UFO never adopted this strategy more often as well in the 1980s.
Verdict
Now not mentioned so far, the most important aspect of
Abominog was that half of the ten tracks on the album were well chosen covers, which is surprising given the band’s lack of tendency over the years to do cover versions as a general rule. But the crucial aspect of these covers is that they are extremely recent and all coming from artists in the 1979-1980 time period. So starting with the five covers, two of those covers would help the band once again find some critical and commercial success and these would be the album’s two singles “On the Rebound” and “That’s the Way That It Is” The first one of the great Russ Ballard penned tracks and it’s well sung by Peter Goalby and the second would be the band’s biggest hit in many a year, where it cracked the US singles chart probably thanks to its Foreigner inspired tones. “Hot Night in a Cold Town” had previously been performed by John Cougar and it sadly sounds like it as well. “Running All Night (with the Lion)” had been brought across by John Sinclair and sounds like quintessential 1980’s AOR, as does the final cover track here in “Prisoner”. These tracks combine greatly with the real reason why this album is on this year’s list and that is down to the quality of the band’s five original tracks on the album. These start with the furious sounding “Too Scared to Run” which has some great guitar leads from Mick Box and it’s matched in true Uriah Heep fashion with following keyboards. This beef is also there on the lusty sounding “Hot Persuasion” and things then get very fast on the accomplished “Sell You Soul” my favourite cut on the album, before these two final styles come together on the great album closer “Think it Over”. Finally one of the best tracks is “Chasing Shadows” it’s keyboard driven and has a flurry of pop hooks that are underpinned with some serious sounding hard rock and it’s one of the best tracks that the band had written in some time. Singer Peter Goalby does a great job on
Abominog and sounds very similar to Foreigner’s Lou Gramm and keyboardist John Sinclair doubles easily for Ken Hensley and pulls the show off with the heavy riffing of band veteran Mick Box. Despite this brief return to their form of old, the band would soldier on and continue to spread their heavy rock message around the world, where they would become known as the band that usually ended up playing in places and often to a large audience where other bands wouldn’t consider playing at all.
Peter Goalby- Vocals
Mick Box- Guitar
Bob Daisley- Bass
John Sinclair- Keyboards
Lee Kerslake- Drums
Production- Ashley Howe