If this group makes it I'll have to commit suicide. From the first note you know you don't want to hear any more. Uriah is watered down, tenth-rate Jethro Tull, only even more boring and inane. UH is composed of five members: vocals, organ, guitar, bass, and drums. They fail to create a distinctive sound tonally; the other factor in their uninteresting style is that everything they play is based...

Gunning for Uriah Heep is simple: Their albums are loaded with targets. Return to Fantasy, like most of its eight predecessors, is loud and facile. Occasionally they trigger reactions of active annoyance, thanks to David Byron's piercing shrieks or Ken Hensley's synthesizer squeals ("Devil's Daughter"). Other times they get off a decent hard-rock shot ("Showdown"). But usually their mechanical,...

Sweet Freedom is the Heep's initial album for Warner Bros. and is as awful as its six Phonogram predecessors, perhaps even more so. Lord knows how they ever got a reputation as a heavy metal band—anyone listening carefully will notice that they are little more than a Top-40-based outfit in drag. Their new disk alternates between oppressive organ drone ("Pilgrim" and "If I Had the Time") and...