Abominog is the fourteenth studio album by English rock band
Uriah Heep, released in March 1982 by
Bronze Records in the UK,[1] and on July 12, 1982 by
Mercury Records in the US.[2] It was their first album without keyboardist
Ken Hensley. The album was critically acclaimed and fairly commercially successful, due in part to the band retooling and updating their sound to a contemporary style and delivering a "punchier, more
pop metal era-appropriate effort.[3]
It featured their last US hits, "On the Rebound" and "That's the Way That It Is". The latter was their highest-charting single of the 1980s, reaching No. 25 on the rock charts.[4]
The album was preceded by a 7-inch EP titled Abominog Junior, featuring "On the Rebound" and two non-album tracks,
Small Faces cover "Tin Soldier" and "Son of a Bitch".
Lineup
When the previous lineup disintegrated, guitarist
Mick Box briefly considered forming a new group entirely, but ultimately decided to continue with the Heep name. Abominog was the first of three albums to feature both vocalist
Peter Goalby and keyboard player
John Sinclair. It also marked the return of drummer
Lee Kerslake to the band; his previous departure had been due to his unhappiness with the band's management, rather than the personnel. Coming along with Kerslake was bassist
Bob Daisley; the two musicians had been in
Ozzy Osbourne's Blizzard of Ozz-era band before being fired by
Sharon Osbourne.
Cover versions
Half of the 10 tracks are
cover versions of recordings by other artists:
"On the Rebound" was originally recorded by
Russ Ballard, on his Russ Ballard & the Barnet Dogs album (1980).
"Running All Night (With the Lion)" was originally recorded by
Gary Farr's Lion, on their Running All Night album (1980). Lion keyboard player Sinclair brought this song with him when he joined Uriah Heep.
"That's the Way That It Is" was originally recorded by the Bliss Band, on their Neon Smiles album (1979).
"Prisoner" was originally recorded by
Sue Saad and the Next, on their self-titled album (1980). The lyrics were written by D.B. (Dirty Boy) Cooper.
The album also included a remake of "Think It Over", a song recorded by the prior (and largely different) lineup of Uriah Heep. The original version (featuring
John Sloman on lead vocals,
Trevor Bolder on bass,
Gregg Dechert on keyboards, and
Chris Slade on drums), was the
A-side of a 1980 Heep single.
A retrospective review by
AllMusic noted that "echoes of the group's old style could be heard in the drama and instrumental firepower of the new songs, but the overall sound owed a greater debt to the
New Wave of British Heavy Metal and harder-rocking
AOR groups of the time", and concluded by saying that the album "rocks hard enough to please heavy metal addicts but is slick enough to win over AOR fanatics and this combination makes it one Uriah Heep's most enduring achievements.[5] Canadian journalist
Martin Popoff defined Abominog an "intelligent, well-paced record" where the "reinvented" Uriah Heep retools the genres of each song over "a decisively strong foundation of melodic metal", evoking "the magic of the NWOBHM, tinged with the complex chemistry of the peak Byron years."[6]
^Ling, Dave (31 October 2011). Uriah Heep - Uncensored On the Record. Coda Books Ltd.
ASINB006286WJW. Preceded by an EP called 'Abominog Junior' that included a Russ Ballard song called 'On the Rebound', 'Son of a Bitch' and a cover of the Small Faces track 'Tin Soldier', the 'Abominog' album was an unqualified success.
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