HEAD FIRST

In 1983, Uriah Heep had become known as quite the revolving door of ever changing band members. However, they were ready to record another album, especially after a renewed interest in the band after their AOR metal release "Abominog" which saw their turn to power metal that was the popular sound of the 80s. Heavy metal with a lot of keyboard embellishments was the style, and they were determined to fit into that and ride the wave of hair-metal popularity.

So, since "Abominog" was a success for the band, it only made sense to keep the same line-up, which is what they did. The band had already been through many vocalists, and the David Coverfield sound alike Peter Goalby was once again their lead singer, Mick Box (of course) their long time guitarist, John Sinclair as keyboardist, Bob Daisley (from Ozzy Osbourne's band) on bass and Lee Kerslake on drums. It would prove to be a good call to keep the line-up, at least popularity-wise, because "Head First", 1983's album, would continue the popularity for the band.

Unfortunately, the sound of the band only continued to become more radio friendly and free of any progressive traits whatsoever. All of the songs would stay in the 3-4 minute range except for "Rollin' the Rock", a power ballad of sorts, which would break the 5 minute mark. The band at this time was only interested in fitting in with the other metal bands of the time. So, we only end up with a fairly standard sounding 80s album which, if you didn't know who the band was, would only get lost in the piles of hair metal albums being released in the 80s. Nothing special whatsoever.

The opening track "The Other Side of Midnight" is a good opener for this kind of album, but establishes the fact that the album would not turn away from this sound throughout its length. "Stay on Top" is really the only interesting track on the album as it has a nice, driving bass line which is emphasized quite well. But, this isn't enough to convince anyone to get the album. "Lonely Nights" is a cover of a Bryan Adams song, and when I way it doesn't get any better than that for the rest of the album, then you will know what you are getting in to here. Just boring pop-metal music which won't challenge anyone.

The bonus tracks don't really help anything either. You get the non-album b-side to "Stay on Top" called "Playing for Time" (which is all they are doing here), and extended demo track "Searching" and the three live cuts, two of which are tracks from the album and the other one is "Angel" from the equally bad album "Equator", which was released in 1985.

There is nothing on this album that will recall the excellent music from the band's past, in fact, nothing that will even remind you of that at all. This album could have been done by anyone, and you wouldn't know the difference. When it's all said and done, nothing on this album showed any signs of the band getting any worse, but likewise it shows no sign of things getting any better either. Unless you are a fan of the metal that came from the decade that this was released, there is no reason to look for this one at all.