THE MAGICIAN'S BIRTHDAY

This record was a very important one to me a long time ago. I appreciated Uriah Heep's semi-heavy approach a lot more than for example Black Sabbath, who I felt were pretentious. Heep, and especially Ken Hensley could pen a melodic rock ditty with amazing ease, and Magician's Birthday is another fine proof of this.

There is not one single bad track on this record, and there are a few gems, like the fatally beautiful Rain, very well-formed Echoes In The Dark, Tales and especially the exciting title track.

Then why don't I consider this an "excellent addition to any prog music collection", why three stars only? The reason is that I have to compare this with other prog music that I have reviewed on this site, and on that scale Magician's Birthday is found lacking. Were this a list of straight rock music, this album would be in the top drawer, but as it is so much less prog than its predecessor, Demons And Wizards, I can only recommend this as a good welterweight fighter, with a few heavy punches.