NEWS: Uriah Heep To Release “Living The Dream” in September - First Video and Single Streaming Now

BRITISH rock Icons Uriah Heep are set to release of their 25th studio album Living the Dream' on September 14th via Frontiers Music Srl. 

The first single and video for the song 'Grazed By Heaven' has now been released.  It is available on all streaming services as well as an instant download with digital pre-orders.

Watch it here. Album preorders are available at http://radi.al/LivingTheDream

The lyrics for “Grazed By Heaven” were written by Jeff Scott Soto and the music was written by bassist Dave Rimmer.

“The song is clearly about sexual tension and desire, very much in the form of 'Fifty Shades Of Grey', putting oneself at ease with the person who is taking control of the situation and trusting you will be in absolute bliss. Fantasy and lust is the calling card here, it’s quite black & white really. The song is very sexy so naturally called for a sexy lyric,” says Jeff Scott Soto of “Grazed By Heaven”

Dave Rimmer adds: 'Grazed' was born out of my desire to write a blazing Heep rock track, I put together the music and arrangement but needed a very strong melody line/lyric to match the music and the Riff..... I have been a fan of Jeff Scott Soto's voice and writing for many years so asked Jeff about a collaboration, he loved the song and came up with the perfect, & powerful lyric/melody..a very natural seamless collaboration between Jeff and I. A true 'Living The Dream' Moment for me”

Pre-order “Living The Dream” & stream the single here:

In conjunction with this release through Frontiers Music Srl, the band is offering some once in a life time experience packages as well as signed copies of the album and many other wonderful things.  Check it out today at https://www.pledgemusic.com/projects/uriah-heep-living-the-dream

“Living The Dream” will be available in the following formats:
CD
CD/DVD
Collector's Box feat. CD/DVD + Exclusive T-Shirt
Standard Black Vinyl
Blue Colored Vinyl - Exclusive to U.S.
Crystal Colored Vinyl - Exclusive to Frontiers EU Shop
Digital

For this album the band teamed up with famed Canadian engineer Jay Ruston.

“Working with Jay was amazing! He totally understood what we were going for on this album and he delivered big time. We wanted a Heep album that the band and the fans would be proud of, and with Jay at the helm, we have delivered that,” says Mick Box. 

When asked what people can expect from the new album Mick Box says “There are rock songs, rock ballads, and a couple of prog songs encompassing everything Heep.”

Vocalist Bernie Shaw adds that fans should also be ready for, “A full blown ‘rockin’ Uriah Heep record. All the traits that made Heep famous in the past are here on this new album. Passion, power, harmony and substance. Heep trade marks from the first riff.

The band is beyond excited with the material written for the new album, which will include some epic additions to the band’s huge catalog of rock staples and looks forward to sharing it with their fans around the world.

The band has announced a full World Tour which will last until the whole first quarter of 2019. "The mighty Heep are proudly able to tour in over 61 countries and we look forward to a packed touring schedule in 2018 and 2019. Touring is in our blood and what we have a passion to do, and so 2018 is no exception,” concludes Box.

View all official tour dates at:: http://www.uriah-heep.com/newa/livedates.php


Track Listing:
1. Grazed By Heaven
2. Living The Dream
3. Take Away My Soul
4. Knocking At My Door
5. Rocks In The Road
6. Waters Flowin’
7. It’s All Been Said
8. Goodbye To Innocence
9. Falling Under Your Spell
10. Dreams Of Yesteryear
11. Take Away My Soul (alternate version) BONUS TRACK – CD/DVD Deluxe Ed.

Bonus DVD Track Listing:
Grazed By Heaven Music Video
Take Away My Soul Music Video
Making The Dream Documentary

Uriah Heep Lineup:
Mick Box – Lead Guitar/Vocals
Phil Lanzon – Keyboards/Vocals
Bernie Shaw – Lead Vocals
Dave Rimmer – Bass Guitar/Vocals
Russell Gilbrook – Drums & Percussion

ALBUM REVIEW: Wayward Sons bring the boom on Ghosts of Yet To Come

WE have always had a large amount of admiration for Toby Jepson - his work with Gun, Little Angels and solo recording, not to mention his production credits. When news filtered through that he had assembled a new band thoughts turned to whether he could remain at the top of his game with Wayward Sons.

But when you have rockers of the calibre of Sam Wood, Nic Wastell, Dave Kemp and Phil Martini you have the collective experience of not only Jepson's bands, but a resumé that includes Spear of Destiny, Treason Kings and Chrome Molly brought to bear.

Thus their début album 'Ghosts of Yet To Come' is a true hard rocking release that recalls the 90s, with more than a smidgeon of a tip of the hat to classic acts from the 70s and 80s.

Throughout the riffs and melodies are to the fore, especially on the immense track 'Ghost' and the mid-pace rollick of 'I Don't Want to Go'.

What makes it an enjoyable album is that they are not as clichéd as many of their contemporaries; sure they are treading a similar path, and they nod to their predecessors for example the likes of 'Give It Away' has echoes of The Fountains of Wayne 'Stacy's Mom'.

The album is a trip through memories, but brought right up to date. Jepson is as always giving every ounce into his performance, but with Wood to as a foil the solidity of the songs is clear. And Toby's social stance is present on the likes of 'Small Talk' - a refreshing diversion from others more bland rock lyrics: "I was born into Thatcher's Disaster" is a memorable line.

Many will have the benefit of having samples of the album through the band's decision to release a series of their tracks (four in total) on YouTube, but they should merely be an encouragement to buy this album.

The urgent melodies of 'Crush' are just a flavour of what the rest of the tracks offer (see video below).

For fans of true hard rock this is an essential buy. Unfortunately they won't be with Inglorious in Belfast, unlike other parts of the tour, but hopefully they will land in Northern Ireland soon to give us all a treat with their melodic boom.

Review by Jonathan Traynor

ALBUM REVIEW: Jorn excels again on new platter Life on Death Road

HARD on the heals of his 2016 release “Heavy Rock Radio”, an album of cover songs that influenced or made an impression on a young Jorn Lande he has released a brand new album ‘Life on Death Road’.

Mostly written and co-produced with the Frontiers labels’ in-house producer Alessandro Del Vecchio, who is a fine musician in his own right (Hardline, Voodoo Circle) it has taken a pain staking 2 years to write.

This time Jorn has put together a band not of session musicians but consisting of Primal Fear members Alex Beyrodt (guitars), Mat Sinner (bass), Francesco Jovino (drums) and Del Vecchio himself on keyboards.

With this line up you would expect a mixture of heavy hitting guitar work along with great melodies and hooks and a powerhouse rhythm section combined with Jorn’s outstanding vocal capabilities and some Whitesnake and Dio influences. You might think you’ll know what you’re going to get if you are a Jorn fan but this album lifts him to a whole new level. There are also a couple of surprise guests!

Album opener and title track ‘Life on Death Road’ is a searing, blistering attack on your eardrums and senses. Fast, heavy with some great riffs and powerful drumming from Jovino it’s a seven odd minutes belter with the guests appearing on the guitar solos featuring Craig Goldy (Dio and now Dio Disciples) and Gus G (Firewind, Ozzy Osbourne, Arch Enemy and Kamelot to name a few) as well as Beyrodt himself.

Several other songs on the album follow in the same vein including ‘Love is The Remedy’ (with another shredding solo from Gus G), The Slippery Slope (Hangman’s Rope) and ‘Insoluble Maze (Dreams in The Blindness)’, the later being very reminiscent of a Dio-era song with a mixture of his own material and his time with Black Sabbath but it’s definitely Jorn’s song in terms of the vocal delivery.

There are a few more heavy rock style songs on the album like ‘Hammered to The Cross (The Business)’ with its slower riff and classic steady bass and drum lines, ’Devil You Can Drive’, with a nice keyboard part from Del Vecchio and ‘Man From The 80’s’ which lyrically will resonate with those of a certain age!!

Of course there are a couple of ballads. ‘Dreamwalker’ with a piano intro that suggests a standard ballad but which explodes into something a lot more along the lines of a power metal ballad, melodic with strong vocals, great guitar solo and a nice three part harmony vocal to finish.

The real full on ballad on the album is the wonderful ‘The Optimist’. Co-written by Gus G it has a mixture of subtle guitar, bass, drums and keyboard lines and Jorn can’t help himself  dipping back into his last album with some lyrical nods to the likes of Kate Bush with the term cloud busting being used as one example (see if you can spot a few others…).

Finally we come to the David Coverdale/Whitesnake influenced songs. Again they are all Jorns and not a copy cat like say on The Snakes’ album. ‘Fire to The Sun’, however, could’ve been on Whitesnake’s 1987 album and not been out of place, with the whole band in full flow with hard kicking drums and a great melodic solo from Beyrodt. ‘I Walked Away’ is a more bluesy song in the style of the early Snake or Coverdale solo era with a solid rhythm section and Jorn showing off his vocal range from low end blues to higher end screams, again making it his own. A short but fantastic solo just makes the song work beautifully.

Album closer ‘Blackbirds’ is the last example of how early Whitesnake influenced Jorn with its opening vocal delivery and lyrics before morphing into something more from the late 80’s era with yet another great solo from Beyrodt.

In no way are any of these songs ‘tribute’ songs, they clearly show their influence but are delivered with passion and a more modern sound thanks to the great production from Lande and del Vecchio.

It’s hard to summarise an album roughly 70 minutes in length in a few words but for the King of Norwegian Heavy / Power metal vocals this may well be his crowning glory. Buy it, you won’t regret a minute of it.

Review by Andy Gillen

Life on Death Road is out now on Frontiers Music srl