DEMONS AND WIZARDS

Preceded by the versatile "Salisbury" and the solid "Look at Yourself", both of great quality but without so much commercial repercussion, perhaps due to their image being overshadowed by their highly successful references Deep Purple, Uriah Heep finally obtained general recognition with "Demons and Wizards" (1972), their fourth album. A work that, without leaving aside the rough edges of their muscular hard rock spiced with symphonic elements, shows a more refined proposal, already noticeable from the fanciful and surrealistic cover entrusted to the iconic graphic artist Roger Dean.

Configured within a wide sonic spectrum, 'Demons and Wizards' unfolds between the exquisite acoustic guitars of Mick Box accompanied by the rhythmic base of Mark Clarke's bass and Lee Kerslake's percussion in the limpid "The Wizard", the virtuosic guitar flexibility with Box's wah wah effects in the adventurous "Traveller in Time", Ken Hensley's dizzying keyboards on the vibrant "Easy Livin'", David Byron's vocal power on the energetic "All My Life", and the thick mid-tempos that intertwine hard rock roughness with progressive overtones on the emotive intensity of Circle of Hands (surely among the album's best moments), and on the ghostly "Rainbow Demon".

And with an acoustic tuning of a certain similarity to Zeppelin's 'Friends', the lilting but very linear "Paradise" dissolves into the introductory chords of the active and hasty "The Spell", the very good closing piece in which different musical planes coexist, such as piano rock, progressive elements with Genesian tints and the vocal interaction between Byron and Hensley.

With more than 3 million copies sold and the placement of the single "Easy Livin'" at position #39 on the North American Billboard, the allegorical "Demons and Wizards" is the most successful album of the English band.

4 stars

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