Uriah Heep
Salisbury

THE REVIEW

Uriah Heep is the band that first combined the psychedelia of groups like Iron Butterfly with 70s Hard Rock; the band that even before Led Zeppelin, introduced fantasy themes into rock music: essentially, the band that more than any other laid the groundwork for the advent of metal music (I haven't forgotten about Black Sabbath, as many might think, but I'm just saying that Uriah Heep had a greater influence on the future evolution of metal).

I am frankly amazed, therefore, not to find a trace on the site of their most famous masterpiece. Ladies and gentlemen, here is "Salisbury". Or rather, the magic, the grandeur, the expressiveness, the delirium concentrated in fifty minutes of music, for a full-length album that undoubtedly ranks in the top ten in the history of Rock. All the songs on this album are splendid, some unforgettable.

"Gypsy" is undoubtedly the best track ever composed by the band: a progressive delirium dominated by the power of the Hammond organ and the rhythmic ferocity of a guitar that seems borrowed from their colleagues and contemporaries, Black Sabbath. In the Olympus then, enters the breathtaking country-rock ballad that is "Lady In Black", together with the melancholic and dreamy progressive of "The Park". The title-track then, is everything: it is the triumphant Progressive, it is the most beautiful suite of rock, probably second only to "Valentyne Suite" by Colosseum, in a few words, they are Uriah Heep. Among the less known pieces, I love to mention "Bird Of Prey", which I personally consider the most direct ancestor of Epic metal.

I have nothing else to say about this work except to get it as soon as possible if you don't own it and if you are at least slightly attracted by that incredible carousel of emotions that is rock music.