LOOK AT YOURSELF

Look at Yourself, in my humble opinion, is the rise of early Heavy Prog, together with albums like In Rock by Deep Purple and Death Walks Behind You by Atomic Rooster, as well as Sabbath's debut, though I find Look at Yourself to have much more resemblence with In Rock and Sabbath's debut than Rooster's, due to the rawness and heaviness.

Look at Yourself is, well actually Uriah Heep is, a full-blown Heavy Rock, and when I mean Heavy, I really mean it. This album, specifically shows how fierceful and in your-face this band can be, with the screeching vocals which are hard to surpass(in both senses), the mammothic hammond organ chords, and the invincible wah-wah solos, are all what make Uriah Heep one of it's own, as well as give the answer to why they could never reach stardom as contemporaries like the already mentioned Deep Purple or Led Zeppelin, since all these aspects are not as accesible nor as catchy from first listen like the others.

This album leaves the experimentation with orchestras(Salisbury) completely, directing all to heaviness with the exception of one of the highlights, which is quite famous by the way, this is July Morning, which is lovely, yet featuring power and agression from Mick's guitar and Ken's organ, as well as some clever chord progressions, signs of early Heavy Prog. The other highlight is the other long song in the album, Shadows of Grief, which belongs to the in-your-face heavy monstrousity songs from the album. It's heavy, it's powerful, it's agressive, it's well-thought, what else you want from a Heavy Rock band?!

The rest of the album is composed by heavy tunes, which are in the standards of previous released hard rock tunes like Gypsy from their debut and Time to Live from Salisbury, just that this time heavier, with the exception of What Should Be Done, which is a sweet piano lead song, with David's irresistible voice, and a great climax created by Mick's wah-wah guitar.

Look at Yourself, really implies on looking at yourself after having heard this album, you'll surely have half of your face melted, especially having ended with the powerful Love Machine, with it's addictive hammond-riff, and mind-blowing organ solo at the end.

Totally a must for Heavy Rock fans, as well as Heavy Proggers, and finally those who are looking for the first traces of Heavy Metal. It might be a bit of a rough album to start with, but in the end you'll enjoy it as much as the other classics.

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