Imagine my amazement when I listened to Demons and Wizards and actually like it—a whole lot. I suppose it’s considered Uriah Heep’s best LP for a reason, but I really believed it was one of those albums listened to only by unwashed 32-year-old dungeons and dragons fanatics who smoke schwagg nonstop while sprawled out on the ratty bean bag chair in their parents’ basement, where they still live.
What does Uriah Heep play? Well, you can call it progressive rock or art rock or hard rock (which I prefer), and it’s heavy on the organ and lots of impressive vocal harmonies and some very cool guitar, over which the flexi-voiced David Byron made like an opera star. The band was formed in 1969 and released its first LP (the wonderfully titled …Very ‘Eavy …Very ‘Umble) but didn’t really hit pay dirt until Demons and Wizards, which made them (in somebody’s words, not mine) “one of the Big 4 of Hard Rock” along with Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, and the Donny Osmond Experience.
Over the years The Heep has boasted such disparate musicians as Elton John drummer Nigel Olsson, Spider from Mars bassist Trevor Bolder, King Crimson/Roxy Music/Bryan Ferry bassist John Wetton, and never played for anybody interesting vocalist Bernie Shaw. At the time of Demons and Wizards, the band’s line-up included Byron on lead vocals; Mick Box on lead guitar and vocals; Ken Hensley on acoustic, electric, and slide guitars, as well as vocals, keyboards, and percussion; Lee Kerslake on drums, percussion, and vocals; and Gary Thain on bass, although Mark Clarke both played bass and sang lead vocals on “The Wizard.”
“Rainbow Demon” is a very heavy, dude—a mid-tempo number that features Box’s guitar and Hensley’s organ making a syncopated thump… thump… thump… until the 1:25 mark, when Byron comes in singing about the rainbow demon who rides on through night and day and evidently never stops, not even to hit the john. Finally there’s a chorus, and a cool chorus it is, and after that guitar and organ and cymbal crash don’t speed up but grow more insistent. After the second chorus the song abruptly stops and Byron goes, “Whoo!” Then Box plays one heavy piece of furniture of a guitar solo, until the chorus returns and gets repeated until the fadeout.
Long LP closer “Paradise/The Spell” starts with a very pretty guitar interlude, and then Byron comes in singing in a hush. “It’s the pain of your secret heart,” he sings, “Bringing you to tears” as the song goes on with those wonderful guitars and the bassist hitting the soul’s sweet spot. Byron’s vocals (I’m almost 1000% certain someone else is singing too, but have been unable to discover the identity of the “Secret Singer”) are fantastic, as is the piano and weird whooshes that come in. Then the song makes an abrupt and even jarring transition from “Paradise” to “The Spell,” which features some nice propulsion and gads of vocal harmonies, which one again unfortunately remind me of Styx. (You can be sure a young Dennis DeYoung listened to this baby around the clock, and listened carefully.) Then the song slows again and Hensley plays some nice piano until Box plays a long solo topped by an astral choir I wish would return to the astral plane from whence it came. Then Box quits and back comes Hensley’s piano playing a slow but lovely solo, and he’s joined by Byron singing about how “you’re wrong to trust in sunlight” (sure, if you’re a vampire) and the rest of the band playing a long and luvverly interlude until the song speeds up significantly in a way that I would love if Byron didn’t once again sound like the father of Styx before ending with the creepy Sting lines, “Every day and every night/You should know that I am watching you!” From: https://www.thevinyldistrict.com/storefront/graded-curve-uriah-heep-demons-wizards/
