Uriah Heep Album: “Equator”

Equator is the long lost Heep album. This particular line up rather quit after its limited release. Basically the band was not gettin much attention, and the record was never really released and promoted. In fact, when the band went on tour, most of the fans had not even heard of the new record. Equator is indeed a fine album itself. It is very similar to Head First in that it is similar to the awesome Abominog album, but not quite as magical. Stand outs are Bad Blood, Night Of the Wolf and Poor Little Rich Girl.

I hate to disagree with the two fellows who posted their certainly posative reviews here regarding my favorite band, Uriah Heep's 1985 album, but I just couldn't enjoy it as much as they did (and I waited nearly three weeks to receive my copy, simply because Amazon.com had trouble tracking one down for me. I appreciate their effort and as a completist I AM glad to have this CD in my collection, but... they really SHOULD have tried harder on any other CD but this one. It really is forgettable, save for the absolutely fantastic "Night of the Wolf" (the only real reason for buying this CD), and the highly enjoyable "Rockarama", which is just a heck of a lot of fun to listen to. Unfortunately, the song "Party Time" is for me absolutely CRINGE-INDUCING... I honestly wonder what Mick and the boys were thinking when they recorded that? I hate to say anything bad about these guys, but... No more, please, no more.

After saying that, I WILL mention that it's great to hear the fantastic Trevor Bolder back as the band's bass player... he was certainly missed (no offense to Bob Daisley, who was great himself on the two albums he did as a member of Heep... I've just had a special fondness for Trevor, after hearing him do his stuff on "Who Needs Me" from Uriah Heep's 1977 album, "Firefly". There, his bass has to be heard to be believed!)

All in all, this is the one Uriah Heep CD that you can afford to miss... especially now that they've raised the price to a whopping [item price](which they did RIGHT after I received my own copy...There are better CDs to spend that much money on, believe me, unless of course you have every Heep album in existance except for this one.

It's great to have Uriah Heep's 1985 lp "Equator" finally available on cd. Since it had a scattered, limited release initially (although it was Heep's final lp to hit the UK top 100-briefly), few fans have heard "Equator". Of those who have, many misunderstand and ultimately dismiss "Equator". What Heep was doing here was trying to be as pleasingly commercial as possible to boost their worldwide visibility. There are touches of Yes ('Rockarama'), Asia, Journey...in other words, this is a VERY '80's pop- rock-metal offering. As such, it is a bit dated in places (especially the murky, synth-heavy production), but overall there are more than enough Heep trademarks (great musicianship, strong material, inspired vocals) to carry the day. There are a few weak tracks, which is unusual for Heep but perfectly understandable when you consider the era in which it was recorded. There is one undisputed all time Heep classic on the fine "Equator": the brilliant 'Night Of The Wolf'--one of the greatest recorded achievements of the band's long career. Add to that 'Poor Little Rich Girl', 'Rockarama', 'Holding On', the somewhat prophetic 'Skools Burnin' and 'Heartache City', and you have a great all-out rock n' roll mid- '80's album from one of the greatest bands in the history of rock. Four and a half stars would be a more appropriate rating for "Equator" in my opinion, but you just can't go wrong with Uriah Heep and this cd is no exception to the rule.

This CD seems to be considered (by some) the low point of Uriah Heep, but it sound OK to me! It's the 3rd and final of their albums with vocalist Peter Goalby. These early 80s albums saw the band with a significant lineup change from the 70s, and the new members combine with the times to make the band hardly recognizable as the old group - they went from sounding very 70s to sounding very early-80s (like just about everyone else in the scene). Like the 3 late 70s Heep albums with John Lawton, the Goalby era starts with a strong reinvention of the group ("Abominog"), followed by albums which gradually veer towards softer, weaker pop. And like the Lawton albums, it's not a HUGE decrease - Equator really doesn't sound too different from the preceeding "Head First" which isn't too big a step from "Abominog". So, if you like Heep or early 80s rock, start with Abominog, then Head First, then Equator and you should't be greatly surprised or disappointed if you like the previous album! I actually find this more interesting than the following two albums ("Raging Silence" and "Different World" - where new singer Bernie Shaw had a rather bland start, before helping create several great Heep CDs). So, if you're new to the band I'd suggest their early 70s stuff, "Firefly", or "Wake the Sleeper", but if you're finishing of your Heep collection or a fan of "Abominog" this isn't a bad album. One good thing is, where the two previous albums seemed to be making up for the loss of Ken Hensley's songwriting input by using outside songwriters and covers (notably, on the weaker songs of the albums), this one seems to be all penned by the band.

Oh, and I agree with the other reviewers that "Night of the Wolf" is a great song!

The project was doomed from the start.

Uriah Heep was dumped by its record label after poor sales from Head First, so 1985 marked a new beginning with a new record deal and the release on March 29 of this 16th studio album. But the return of bassist Trevor Bolder - with Peter Goalby (v), Mick Box (g), John Sinclair (k) and Lee Kerslake (d) - did nothing to bolster the 10 tracks that clock in at 46:54.

The stab at an AOR style in the arena of Def Leppard and Journey just doesn't work well. There is no heart and soul in the biggest attempt at angling for the single's chart - Rockarama - while Bad Blood, Poor Little Rich Girl and Skools Burnin' each run out of gas before the key slides into the ignition. The best out if the mediocre bunch - Night of the Wolf - is the final cut.

Whether or not the band was calling the shots - I tend to think its the latter due to the new contract - this is the weakest studio album in the discography. And that the CD does not contain any bonus tracks, as compared with other studio releases, is a tip-off that interest should only be generated from fans eying to fill in the gaps in their UH collection.