For Diehard fans only, maybe
Michael Difrancesco | San Francisco Bay Area, USA | 03/30/2004
(2 out of 5 stars)
"I Guess I'm not a diehard fan or maybe I don't need to be to like this album. (...). He belongs with a Bay City Roller type band or Shawn Cassidy solo act type thing. His voice ruins the few would-have-been good songs. I have a lot of 'Heep but after about about 2 times of listening to this cd (original release) I returned it. Don't recommend re-release unless you just have to own all of their studio releases. Bonus tracks still have crummy gay voice. (...)"
Underrated
psychedelephant | Staten Island, NY United States | 08/27/2004
(3 out of 5 stars)
"This is by no means the fiasco some fans would have you believe; it just doesn't sound much like Uriah Heep. Vocalist John Sloman, formerly of Lone Star, doesn't have a bad voice, but it's wildly unsuited for both the band and the material. While the album does suffer somewhat as a result, there are some excellent songs here, including "No Return", and two of the best tracks bassist Trevor Bolder has written: "Fools", and "It Ain't Easy", the latter being one of the greatest songs Heep has ever recorded. Definitely worth a listen. (BTW, if you're looking for the worst Heep album, it's 1985's "Equator", without question)."
Beware USA - not an Easy livin' kind of Heep
Georgiy Korneyev | USA | 07/16/2007
(5 out of 5 stars)
"This album is not for the "HIT" oriented American audience who expects from every Heep album the radio friendly easy listening. The album is for the intelligent listener with plenty of tollerance. It is a great album.
Very original, but not that different as spoken of. I would say it is more Uriah Heep sounding album than any later effort of the band untill very recent Sea of Light and Sonic Origami.Even singing. To tell the truth
I never recognised the band on such records as Abominog and Head First, I was told It's Uriah Heep. The singing is closer to Byron than to Lawton, but with some Glenn Hughes/Geddy Lee/Pavloff's dog/Buddgie kind of style.
A liitle bit of Motownish soul effort on the Sloman's part. But still I would deffinetly recognise Heep, listening to it blinded. Songwriting is terrific so is the sound on this remastered record. It realy is a great final record of the 70's Uriah Heep who's many of us still are the fans.
But it is also a music masterpiece which I will recomend to any music lover who is ready to explore,but that's why we're call ourselves experts
right? Explore and enjoy."
Track Listings (13) - Disc #1