Anthology

This is a very good anthology/overview of Ken Hensley's career, which may point fans toward some varying aspects of his work. Uriah Heep devotees, who would be the most likely audience for this collection, may well want to check out more work from the first Toe Fat album, or even Orgasm by Head Machine, based on what's here. Indeed, the harder rocking work of both of those bands may impress listeners far more than the representative track from Hensley's most celebrated early affiliation, the Gods; "Looking Glass," with its languid textures, sort of lies there as a formless interlude, while Head Machine's "Climax: You Tried to Take It All" -- even though it runs a little too long for its own good -- rocks out in full heavy metal regalia (with Hensley on guitar, incidentally); similarly, Toe Fat's Bo Diddley-based "Working Nights" is an extraordinary document from this short-lived band. And then we jump through the highlights of Hensley's work with Uriah Heep across the early to mid-'70s for the balance of the first CD. How one feels about that material will depend upon whether one listened to that band for their hard rock or their progressive rock elements, though Hensley did credible work in both areas. The second disc is devoted mostly to Hensley's solo work from the '70s and beyond, mostly dark, moody, lushly textured pieces, a surprising amount of it focusing on his acoustic guitar work (which ought to be better appreciated), plus "Send Me an Angel" by Blackfoot, which is a great showcase for that band as well as showing off some more of Hensley's prog rock chops. The annotation, such as it is, consists of an interview with Hensley, but one would very much have appreciated a brief biographical overview of his career. Additionally, someone at Castle Records wasn't thinking clearly when they decided to print the notes in extremely small-font black-type on a dark reddish background, rendering much of it basically unreadable. ~ Bruce Eder|