Black Sabbath are often credited as the founders of heavy metal, due to Tony Iommi’s gloomy riffs, Ozzy Osbourne’s wailing vocals, and Geezer Butler’s dark lyrics, all helping to shape our stereotypical idea of the genre nowadays.
However, they weren’t alone in pushing the boundaries of hard rock in the late ’60 and early ’70s, with acts like Deep Purple and Led Zeppelin also coming up in conversation when discussing early metal groups.
However, there’s a group that was instrumental in the development of metal and doesn’t seem to be talked about as often as it should, and that would be Uriah Heep.
Coming from London, UK, the band sold over 40 million albums and had well-known hits like “The Wizard” and “Easy Livin'”, but somehow aren’t as celebrated as their peers, only retaining a significant following in Central and Eastern Europe.
The band’s sixth album, 1973’s “Sweet Freedom”, expanded their proto-metal sound into a progressive direction that laid the foundations for more experimental acts to follow.
As it celebrates its 50th anniversary, we decided to honor this special release, discussing what makes it a masterpiece and one of the earliest examples of how progressive metal could sound.
The magic line-up
In a career that spans more than 5 decades, Uriah Heep have had a fair share of line-up changes, with only guitarist Mick Box remaining as a constant member of the line-up throughout the years.
While it isn’t the band’s longest-lasting line-up at all (it only lasted 3 years, between 1972 and 1975), it maintained the core of Box, singer David Byron, and keyboardist/guitarist/singer Ken Hensley, adding bassist Gary Thain and drummer Lee Kerslake to the mix.
Gary’s celebrated bass lines with their strong emphasis on melody and Keerslake’s tight drumming clicked with the rest of the line-up and allowed them to continue breaking boundaries within the rock genre.
Uriah Heep had come from the psychedelic explorations of 1971’s “Look at Yourself” and tested their new members the following year on the fantasy-inspired “Demons and Wizards”.
The result was a celebrated release with one foot on heavy metal and the other on the occult rock of Blue Öyster Cult, with the new band members being celebrated as welcome additions to the line-up.
However, on the follow-up “The Magician’s Birthday”, the band faltered, with their songwriting becoming too meandering and self-indulgent, and while modern critics are kinder than at the time of release, most agree that it’s far from the group’s best work from their golden era.
But for those who thought that the band was becoming too out of touch and losing interest, Box and co. were about to prove them wrong with some of their best songwriting yet.
