Abominog - Uriah Heep

Named after a character in Dickens's 'David Copperfield' Uriah Heep released their first album 'Very 'Eavy...Very 'Umble' in 1969 and displayed a very organ and guitar enfused form of rock with even acoustic and jazz elements thrown into the mix for good measure.

There fourteenth album 'Abominog', released in 1982, was the follow-up to their previous showpiece 'Conquest' and only contained one surviving member of the band that recorded ...
...ditching the Uriah Heep motive and starting afresh with a new group.

However, he didn't, and 'Abominog' was a fairly successful album featuring a change of sound for the band. Now, with Pete Goalby on vocals, John Sinclair on keyboards and two ex-members of Ozzy Osbournes band during the recordings of Ozzy's LP's 'Blizzard of Ozz' and 'Diary of a Madman' Lee Kerslake and Bob Daisley on drums and bass respectively, the group played ... more

Named after a character in Dickens's 'David Copperfield' Uriah Heep released their first album 'Very 'Eavy...Very 'Umble' in 1969 and displayed a very organ and guitar enfused form of rock with even acoustic and jazz elements thrown into the mix for good measure.

There fourteenth album 'Abominog', released in 1982, was the follow-up to their previous showpiece 'Conquest' and only contained one surviving member of the band that recorded it. In fact, Mick Box (guitarist) even considered just ditching the Uriah Heep motive and starting afresh with a new group.

However, he didn't, and 'Abominog' was a fairly successful album featuring a change of sound for the band. Now, with Pete Goalby on vocals, John Sinclair on keyboards and two ex-members of Ozzy Osbournes band during the recordings of Ozzy's LP's 'Blizzard of Ozz' and 'Diary of a Madman' Lee Kerslake and Bob Daisley on drums and bass respectively, the group played a much harder rock than previously and managed to garner a whole new rank of fans. Me included. (I was given the album to listen to by a friend who had nicked it from his brother in order to pass it on to me. His sacrifice was not to waste.)

Surprisingly six out of the ten tracks on the album were cover versions but each fit into the whole piece very easily and could not really be told apart from the band-composed material.

Track Listing

1 - Too Scared to Run
2 - Chasing Shadows
3 - On the Rebound
4 - Hot Night in a Cold Town
5 - Running all Night (with the Lion)
6 - That's the Way that it is
7 - Prisoner
8 - Hot Persuasion
9 - Sell Your Soul
10 - Think it Over

The whole set begins with Mick Box's guitar ringing during the opening of 'Too Scared to Run' before Goalbys distinctly rock voice cuts in. The previous singer, John Sloman who had a more melodic and far higher voice, was a far cry from what Goalby now delivered with his harsh cries that matched the sound of Box's guitar perfectly.

'On the Rebound' (penned by Russ Ballard - better known for his song 'Since You've Been Gone' that Rainbow took into the charts) was released as the a-side to an EP and featured a thumping beat with a large keyboard presence that occasionally cranked up with guitar.

'Running all Night (with the Lion)' was a cover version of a song originally sung by the group Lion (who? I hear you cry. They sang the theme to the cartoon film version of the 'Transformers'.) and appeared on their 'Running all Night' LP from 1980. Keyboardist John Sinclair had previously been in the band and brought the song along with him!

'Hot Night' was a track that had been sung by two others - John Cougars band and John Kay & Steppenwolf - and is probably my least favourite on the album mainly due to the previous 3 tracks being a great trio.

The set closes with 'Think it Over' which begins with a slow keyboard build-up until the rest of the band kick-in with a great crescendo of noise and take the song about failed relationships on a gallop to the finish. Compared to the gallop many bands play to nowadays it could seem a little plodding but back then, as rock was finally beginning to take hold following the NWOBHM, their pace and musicianship was second to none.

All the tracks featured on 'Abominog', originals and covers, are hard to tell apart. All fit together perfectly and fit the standard rock formula of verse-chorus-verse-chorus-bridge-chorus fade which, although predictable, works well with such good material. No song (apart from one) ran over 4 minutes and 33 seconds and were far more accessable than some of their previous stuff.

Uriah Heep are still going strong (albeit with a NEW line-up) and will be releasing a new LP sometime soon. Most people have probably never heard of them but, in their day, they produced some wonderful (some not so wonderful) tracks that managed to span a whole series of musical (rock) spectrums. 

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