Uriah Heep - High And Mighty (1976) [2004 Expanded De-Luxe Edition]

This Uriah Heep album is the last with David Byron on vocals and with John Wetton on bass and Mellotron. The album is varied, with great prog-oriented songs and good rock and roll songs. This is the less prog-oriented Uriah Heep album in Byron era, although there are great songs like Midnight and Misty Eyes and it contains lots of keyboards, played both by Hensley and Wetton.

The first song is One Way or Another, which is curious, because features Wetton vocals. The song has a very good rock n' roll guitar and bass riff, along with good vocal harmonies in the background.

Then comes the highlights of this album, which are Weep in Silence, Misty Eyes and Midnight. The first has very good organ and guitar soloing. The song is slow, with a very beautiful guitar and bass riff. The guitar soloing among the verses and chorus is the highlight of the song. Mist Eyes has beautiful vocal intro, with a beautiful vocal harmony, interesting acoustic guitar riff and great organ. Byron's interpretation is very good. There are some rhythm changes that make the song more interesting. The drumming is very good also. Midnight has a very beautiful slide guitar solo in the intro along with great organ, bass and guitar. This is certainly the most beautiful song of the album, including mellotron, great organ solo.

The second side is more rock n' roll oriented, with songs like Can't Keep a Good Band Down, which is a classic rocker of the album, but it still contains some interesting synthesizer and organ and Make a Little Love, which is another rocker with good guitar, bass and organ.

There are songs like Woman of the World which are somewhat strange, though they contain good keyboards. I can't stop singing is somewhat strange, with an unusual riff of organ, bass and vibraphone-like synth. There are some tubular bells too, making this song one of most peculiar by Heep, which makes it interesting too.

And there are great songs, like Footprints in the Snow, a beautiful ballad by Hensley and Wetton, with beautiful and calm main riff with acoustic guitar, moog synthesizer and organ and then a strong chorus and second verse, with great organ, bass and drums. Confession is a beautiful piano-oriented ballad with very beautiful vocals by Byron and choral vocals in the chorus. The song is short and reminds me of Queen, mainly in their ballads from the beginning of their career.

Overall this album is very good and many people overlook it, but it is a good effort by the band that would suffer a great change in their line-up in the next album and then many changes until 1986, when the new line-up stayed and is still together until now. Great album to your collection.
Fernando Raffani (ProgArchives)