Dotoar

I suppose some of you know the story of Uriah Heep rehearsing in the room next to a newly reformed Deep Purple and how they adopted their special brand of organ/guitar interplayed heavy rock. Not that it matters much since Heep from the very beginning were set to try out just about anything that made them look cool. It took some time before they eventually gelled together around their own brand of pseudo-art metal, but there are already traces of the future to be found on this rough-edged debut that's literally all over the place. Perhaps one reason that they couldn't settle in the beginning was the unstable lineup. The band was formed around the core members, guitarist Mick Box, keyboardist Ken Hensley and singer David byron, and in addition Paul Newton on bass guitar and Alex Napier on drums. Napier obviously didn't get along with the others and was temporarily replaced by Elton John's drummer boy Nigel Olsson about halfway through the recording of this album.

The songs themselves are mainly written by Box and Byron, apart from Newton's "Dreammare" (is that even a word?) and "Come away Melinda", apparently a cover. None of these two tracks are particularily representative of the things that would be though; The former is a primitive proto-metal, good-for-nothing ripoff of Zeppelin's "Your time is gonna come", showcasing lyrics depicting a nightmare and a stupid "lalalalala" climax which heralds their bad habit of filling lyrical space with nonsense. "Melinda" is slightly better, although I don't feel that neither they themselves nor the actual song match the intended sincerity, and it's mainly carried forth by Byron's nonetheless tender voice which he already manages to modulate in an impressive way. The blues workout "Lucy blues" can be dumped in the trashbin as well, as it adds nothing to their own significance and besides, I personally don't care much for blues in the first place, even if it's properly executed. Don't try to pass on faked crap like this! Thankfully, they wouldn't try to ever again. The two pedestrian Free-style rockers, "Walking in your shadow" and "Real turned on", are not much to write home about either.

So, having got the duffers out of the way, we can start concentrating on the good sides of the album. It starts off with a bang, as you all know. "Gypsy" is an instant classic and leads the way of how to make the best out of exactly one riff, and the most primitive riff imaginable at that. After the somewhat ambitious lead-in section it just proceeds to trample on everything in its way, like a bulldozer or a Godzilla or a brigade of stormtroopers or a... well, you get the idea. It just drags you along wether you want it or not, through the caves of operatic screams and the stormy battlefields of swirling organs. This is some mighty headbang for the bucks! Another interesting track is the closing "Wake up" with its naive anti-war lyrics, although set to a strangely adequate jazz-rock backdrop, almost reminding of Soft Machine in places. I say it works!

My personal bet for the best track on here though, is the oddly ignored "I'll keep on trying", the closest in style of what they would pursue later on. A moody organ-driven intro, interrupted by the trademark wailings before switching gears completely with the metallic guitar break, topped with peculiar bass triplets played at lightning speed underneath the rising lead lines leading into the very Sabbathesque verses. (That was a mouthful already! There's a lot going on in this song). And I'm really fond of the calm bridge section about two minutes in, where Byron really gets to shine as a melodic and powerful vocalist over the slowly ascending intensity of the lush backdrop, relieved by Box's furious wah-wah solo. Oh yes, everyone gets a share of the pie on this one and it's a shame that it seems to pass unnoticed even by fans.

So, a very sprawling debut with next to no focus that nonetheless serves as a token of the times. The heavy approach is already firmly in place but they don't yet know quite what to do with it, since they obviously didn't wanna get stuck merely in the "Gypsy" formula. Too bad they still did, then. (Joking, of course. But only slightly).

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