Uriah Heep Album: “Sea of Light”

Heep's 1995 album, currently being released in limited quantities in the U.S., is being hailed as the best effort since the band's classic days of the early seventies, and with good reason. The current lineup has lots of exeprience and use it to create masterful hard rock. "Mistress of all Time", "Spirit of Freedom" and "Love in Silence" are all stunningly beautiful, exemplifying the kind of power-ballad that this band has always done so well. However, there are a good dose of harder rocking numbers to show the band aren't all light and no shade. Great album. Although the days of Demons and Wizards and The Magician's Birthday are long gone, this is as much as a Heep fan can hope for from the boys in the nineties.

After a string of mediocre albums that flopped commercially in the 80s and early 90s, it really looked like Uriah Heep had reached the end of the line by 1994. Then, seemingly out of nowhere, along came "Sea Of Light", one of the best albums of their career. Abandoning the cheesy synths, hair-metal vocals, and MTV-style songwriting that had marred their work over the past decade, and caused all but the most die-hard fans to give up on them, they decided to produce an album that sounded like Uriah Heep again, and the result was astonishing. Huge credit goes to keyboardist Phil Lanzon, who brings back the classic Hammond organ that was Heep's signature sound, and vocalist Bernie Shaw, whose singing takes a quantum leap on this CD (on many tracks, he sounds uncannily like original vocalist David Byron). Some of the band's finest songwriting since "The Magician's Birthday" can be found here, from the power of "Time Of Revelation" and "Universal Wheels", to the grace of "Mistress Of All Time" and "Love In Silence", to the delicate, haunting beauty of "Dream On".

"Sea Of Light" is a triumph, and laid the groundwork for its (arguably even better) follow-up, 1998's "Sonic Origami". A must for all Heepsters, and highly recommended to anyone else.

This album has to be one of the best Heep has ever put out! Having been a fan for a long time, this album is so "mature" but still rocks. Phil Lanzon and Mick Box are a great writing duo a la Box and Hensley. It took a few albums, but they are at that point now. Standout tracks are "Against All Odds", "Time of Revelation", "Logical Progression", "Fires of Hell" and "Dream On". The latter being the best ballad that I have ever heard. The follow up "Sonic Origami" was given 4 and a half stars. This one gets 5+! I would recommend it to any Heep fan, rock fan or prog fan. The song writing has caught up to the musicianship finally-AGAIN.

Not a bad effort by this long running British heavy rock unit, but I definitely liked their newest offering 'Wake The Sleeper' ('08) a bit better. Tracks here that should satisfy most old school Heep followers are "Against The Odds", the heavy hitting "Fear Of Falling", "Spirit Of Freedom", "Words In A Distance" and "Dream On". Vocalist / front man Bernie Shaw doesn't hurt Uriah Heep's longevity - as a few have mentioned before that Shaw has obviously been somewhat influenced by the likes of Steve Perry and the late Boston crooner Bard Delp. I sort of tend to agree with that. Personally, I thought that 'Sea Of Light' was a bit too commercial but maybe that's just me. Give it a listen.

This is the first Uriah Heep original music that I have bought since Abominog came out 20+ years ago. What fantastic music that they have recorded. While this was released in 1999, I just purchased it recently. The harmony is better than the golden years of 1970-1976. Looking forward to their next CD which is currently being recorded.