Heep have aged, but haven’t changed their spots. They continue releasing albums after 41 years. Their Back-catalogue has reached the number 23 in terms of studio album. So what about the 23rd offering by these British rockers?

Now if you are faithful to a genre of music, as Heep have been since -despite the 80s - they remain in what we now call classic rock, you are to run into some snags after so much material. These however are the key to a good album. If you’ve got them then there is no need to change.

So since we roughly know what is we are going to hear, we do not know if we’ll like what’s coming out of the speakers. And we here come to the issue of how much can you forgive a band that you feel has betrayed you. The relationship between listeners and music is definitely strong, even some would say pornographic. And just like all relationships it has it’s defining moments. Like in the beginning where you’re discovering the band, the point when the musical nuances change from adorable to tedious and finally the moment where you realise that it is not the band that you fell in love with.

If I was to compare “Into The Wild” with any other Heep record, it would be “Different World” from 1991. Surprisingly both albums find the band at the beginning of a decade that would change Uriah Heep’s status. In the 90s Heep were washed away by the tsunami called grunge, they sunk from old-but-constant rockers to the ‘Where Are They Now’ category. So here we are in 2011, maybe because of their work ethic – especially when it comes to touring, maybe because of their exceptional live shows, they have earned and entry into the pantheon of rock. You don’t have to see that they’re releasing albums but you do have to see them live.

Unfortunately Heep do not have the beauty they once had. I had my doubts about the last album but there were two or three tracks that you convinced to give it some time. This one however, while it contains flashes of brilliance in various parts of the album doesn’t have the same spine-tingling effect like way back then.

Paxman’s production does not help, when it comes to Mick Box’s solos. The drums push the album along at an almost constant acceleration - a point I’m starting to think that even the band want to make on “I Can See You” - this album is one of the rockier that we have heard from the band in a long time.

The feeling you get from this album is almost the same to seeing an old girlfriend. You remember her with joy but you wouldn’t do it again. But suddenly you see in a different light and you remember why you fell in love then. This is also what the last track “Hard Way To Learn” does to you. Even though it’s a song that is absent from the last Whitesnake album it proves that Uriah Heep can still leave you speechless. In fact I wonder whether it is a homage to Gary Moore…