THE GOLDEN PALACE

"The Golden Palace" is a budget compilation covering what are (at the moment) the last two studio albums by Uriah Heep. There are 6 tracks off 1995's "Sea Of Light" and 8 off 1998's "Sonic Origami". That's half of SOL and over half of SO.

Not having previously heard "Sea Of Light" at all, I was positively suprised by the quality and heaviness of the material. 'Against The Odds' and 'Universal Wheels' are really great heavy metal songs. 'Fear Of Falling' continues in the same vein but this time Trevor Bolder takes the vocal duties and he does a great job. 'Spirit Of Freedom' is more like a traditional newer Heep song. Good calmer song, works as a change from the heavier material. 'Love In Silence' takes us even further into the calm ballady stuff but has a dark bluesy feel to it. About halfway through it turns the tempo up a bit with some Deep Purple-esque keyboard work leading into the second part, till we return to the beginning. There's even an acoustic part near the end. Actually quite an awesome track. 'Dream On' is an acoustic and moody piece of music. Some interesting vocal parts in this one and overall, another rather excellent track. I think I'll have to check out "Sea Of Light" in full at some point.

As for the "Sonic Origami" part, you can read my track by track review of that record at the appropriate place. In general, very good picks here off that album. I would have probably included the 'Question'/'Change' combination but you can't have all. 'Between Two Worlds', 'I Hear Voices', 'Only The Young' and 'Sweet Pretender' are probably the highlights here and the rest don't leave much to complain about.

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I came across this in the bargain bin of my local record store. With a price of 2? and the crummy budget look, I was a bit doubtful at first. Can't say I was disappointed. The song selection is very good, the production is just as good as on the original records and the price was more than right. This is a steal and if you haven't heard these last two albums at all, definitely check this out. For a good price, you've got nothing to lose.