SALISBURY

Opening with a typical UH heavy song Bird Of Prey sets the tone for the album with strong rhythmic heavy guitars, great vocals and fabulous screams by the Uriah Heep choir, the song loses strength near the end, but it's a great opening to an amazing album nonetheless. Ken Hensley's keyboard take control over The Park, assisted by soft accoustic guitars and almost feminine-like vocals from David Byron, they create a very soft ballad, very beautifull.

Time To Live puts Heep back in heavy rock format, a nice song but not all that great, mainly because I think the keyboards are very understated. On Lady In Black Ken Hensley takes the vocals, a great song and one of my favourite Heep songs, accoustic guitars and strong dumming and great ahhhahhhahahhaa's. Just fabulously it wraps up the first side of the album.

Side to of the album starts with the blues rocker High Priestess, a nice song, with some nice guitars and as usual great singing, but it pales in comparrison to the next song in line, the epic Salisbury, which closes the album, clocking in at almost 17 minutes. A classical opening slowely building up, to heavy rock, fabulous play of Ken Hensley in combination with the 26 piece orchestra. Really fabulous, and impossible to describe it, since so much happens, with some jazzy bass/drum play, beautifully sung, and a great guitar solo from Mick Box.

Salisbury is a leap forward from their debut, showing they can do more than just play heavy rock. A great second album, knowing the best is still to come I reward it with four stars. Get Look At Yourself, Demons And Wizards, and The Magicians Birthday first, but after that, Salisbury is the next best thing Heep has to offer.