{"id":40100,"date":"2014-04-28T13:24:19","date_gmt":"2014-04-28T18:24:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/?p=40100"},"modified":"2014-04-28T13:24:57","modified_gmt":"2014-04-28T18:24:57","slug":"uriah-heep-outsider-cd-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/2014\/uriah-heep-outsider-cd-review\/","title":{"rendered":"Uriah Heep | Outsider<\/em>"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Alexandra Mrozowska<\/span>
\n– Columnist —<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"UriahThere is no doubt Uriah Heep has already secured themselves a place among the \u201cclassic\u201d or \u201clegendary\u201d bands a rock fan enumerates in a single breath \u2013 with their early and mid-1970s cult albums, recorded by the classic Heep line-up. Past achievements aside, forty five years and more than a few personal changes later, the band still stands strong \u2013 the clear proof of which is their newest release Outsider<\/em>, a follow-up to and a musical continuation of the 2011 Into The Wild<\/em> album.<\/p>\n

\u201cSometimes I can\u2019t keep my feet on the ground,\u201d Bernie Shaw sings in the groovy opener \u201cSpeed Of Sound\u201d and from the first seconds of this dynamic, Hammond organ-infused track you know these words are somewhat prophetic. Apparently, what Uriah Heep tries to prepare their listeners for is some serious rocking, so don\u2019t be surprised at your feet getting off the ground while listening to this album! Just try \u201cThe Law\u201d laden with some tasteful yet fierce guitar licks, the feisty eponymous track (a gallop in vein of the band\u2019s classic \u201cEasy Livin\u2019\u201d) or the dynamic \u201cRock The Foundation.\u201d Or maybe the surprisingly heavy, vintage final track \u201cSay Goodbye\u201d? Even the slower tracks, such as \u201cOne Minute\u201d with ballad-esque piano-based intro, or Hammond-driven \u201cIs Anybody Gonna Help Me?\u201d have certain rocking undertones, making Outsider very dynamic release overall. <\/p>\n

And even though long gone are the days when the high-pitched, equilibristic vocal duels of Ken Hensley and the late David Byron shone through Uriah Heep\u2019s classics, here the backing vocals provide a very solid background to Bernie Shaw\u2019s characteristic, strong voice (\u201cSpeed Of Sound,\u201d \u201cKiss The Rainbow\u201d). Exceptional is also the instrumental performance of the entire band, and especially, the six string \u201cwizard\u201d Mick Box. After forty five years of activity in the music industry, the sole founding member of Uriah Heep could have entered the lists with the majority of the younger generation shredders and most certain is the scenario in which he would have taken a round of them all. Another distinctive feature of this album is its inevitable 1970s progressive rock flavor, balanced skillfully with more contemporary musical undertones, so that the record\u2019s content can\u2019t be considered neither detached from Heep\u2019s recognizable style, nor \u201cdated\u201d. This, in combination with the masterful songwriting and clean production, constitutes what the living legend of Uriah Heep is now, almost a half-century from its formation.<\/p>\n

Outsider<\/em> is no Look At Yourself<\/em> or Demons & Wizards<\/em> \u2013 but at the same time, similarly to its immediate predecessors Wake The Sleeper<\/em> (2008) or Into The Wild<\/em> (2011), it really doesn\u2019t have to be. It\u2019s a classy record from one of the world\u2019s longest-running hard rock acts \u2013 and although on Uriah Heep concert fans will always demand to hear \u201cEasy Livin\u2019\u201d or \u201cJuly Morning\u201d, no one should feel disappointed about the band adding three or four new songs to their set list. Each of them is a hard rock gem in its own right and a valuable addition to the band\u2019s catalog \u2013 so is the entire Outsider<\/em>. Much recommended, not only for Uriah Heep fans, but for hard rock listeners in general.<\/p>\n

Genre: Classic Rock, Hard Rock<\/p>\n

Band:
\nMick Box: guitars, vocals
\nPhil Lanzon: keyboards, vocals
\nBernie Shaw: lead singer
\nRussell Gilbrook: drums, vocals
\nDave Rimmer: bass, vocals<\/p>\n

Track List:
\n1.\tSpeed Of Sound
\n2.\tOne Minute
\n3.\tThe Law
\n4.\tThe Outsider
\n5.\tRock The Foundation
\n6.\tIs Anybody Gonna Help Me?
\n7.\tLooking At You
\n8.\tCan’t Take That Away
\n9.\tJessie
\n10.\tKiss The Rainbow
\n11.\tSay Goodbye<\/p>\n

Label: Frontiers Records<\/p>\n

Website: www.uriah-heep.com\/<\/a><\/p>\n

Hardrock Haven rating: 9\/10<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Alexandra Mrozowska – Columnist — There is no doubt Uriah Heep has already secured themselves a place among the \u201cclassic\u201d or \u201clegendary\u201d bands a rock fan enumerates in a single breath \u2013 with their […]<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":40101,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10848],"tags":[2317,1104,374,1103,9222,8956],"class_list":{"0":"post-40100","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arcrvws2014","8":"tag-cd-review","9":"tag-classic-rock","10":"tag-frontiers-records","11":"tag-hard-rock","12":"tag-outsider","13":"tag-uriah-heep"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40100","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40100"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40100\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/40101"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40100"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40100"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40100"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}