Dotoar

Another album, another change of drummer - this time in the form of Ian Clarke - and another change of direction. This is probably their heaviest record, at least in the classic era, and among fans and critics considered one of their finest works ever. I wouldn't know about that though, even if it happens to contain a handful of classics. It also sports a cover which is impossible to render on a computer screen as the original releases had a foil-like area in the blue-framed mirror which meant that the aspiring record buyer would do exactly what the title suggests. Clever move for a bunch of drunken cavemen, eh?

That's as may be, but it's the content that counts in the end, right? And the content slaps you right in the face from the moment you press play when the title track assaults yer speakers with a furious drum beat that never ceases its intensity throughout the whole song. Just as simple and hard-hitting as "Gypsy" but thrice as fast and the expected next-to-none riff thumps relentlessly in what would be their trademark stress-shuffle rythm which was to be abused to death on later records. On here it's still fresh out of the box (Mick Box, YEAH I did!) though, and it even features some really energetic percussion work from the ethnic band Osibisa towards the end that just rises and rises in intensity till you think that they just can't go any faster. Now, this is some true vintage Heep at its very best, I tell you!

At the other end of the scale, at least their scale, we have the other classic, the majestic "July morning" which nonetheless is equally simple in pure melodic terms, but it's cleverly built upon the mounting-of-tension principle which makes for a really dramatic listen. It rises toward the sky several times, each one concluding in a total freefall before slowly starting to rise again. Too bad they just couldn't come up with enough lyrics to fill out the chorus and instead decided to substitute it with all these stupid lalala's. But it doesn't really do much harm on a whole, and during the lengthy coda (featuring another guest star in Manfred Mann on Moog synthesizer) they literally crawl out of their skin to prove themselves capable of turning the tension up to eleven. Once again, I applaud them in their embryonic bombast. Now, keep these two tracks in mind whenever you listen to their later albums and notice how most of the songs from now on would be built upon either of these two formulas. Rarely reaching up to their level though.

The third track that I think deserves attention is the gothic quasi-progster "Shadow of grief" (with stupid lyrics that don't come anywhere near the spooky musical atmosphere, but like I said, don't pay attention to their lyrics). It's built upon a weird and fumbling structure, constantly breaking down and grasping after something to hold on to which often turn out to be a descending organ riff that probably took about a nanosecond to come up with. But again, that's the charm of Heep, how they managed to spark life to the simplest phrases possible. It's sort of a logical successor to "Bird of prey" with all the vocal gymnastics from Byron, although this time they go for a more epic atmosphere, drenched in all these organ flourishes that surely manages to cast deep shadows upon the listener. Bizarre and intense, three cheers for fresh ideas!

Unfortunately, that's where the fun stops. "I wanna be free" and "Tears in my eyes" are the exact equivalents of the previous album's "Time to live" and "High priestess". That is to say they both sound alike and deliveres nothing interesting at all musically, and "Tears" features some really obnoxious slide guitar on top of that. Leave me alone! "What should be done", allegedly written and recorded in about half an hour (you don't say!) is a bland piano ballad and the closing "Love machine" recycles the stress-shuffle from the title track, and naturally ends up being just as stupid as the title suggests.

That leaves us with a total of three good, nay, awesome tracks and four relative stinkers, and it's a good thing that the lengthiest tracks turned out to be the best. Is this enough to make it a classic then? For a better band, no, but it's Heep we're talking about so I guess we'll have to settle for their own standards.

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