If only I had money this year.

So many of my favorite bands going all lout with box sets and deluxe editions.

I couldn't find any links to this being ion sale yet, but feel free to add one.

I just wanted to get out the alert.

But, at first glance I see some studio albums missing.

Why would they not include every album???

The following comes right off the official Uriah Heep site-

This ultimate collection of Uriah Heep albums, released between 1970 and 2019, exists for a reason. This is not the first time that the work of the mighty Londoners has been brought together of course, but never has the band’s ENTIRE career, covering EVERY album, been collected together and presented in this truly celebratory box set.

The way ENTIRE and EVERY are stressed, it would lead one to believe that they have stuck two albums on one CD where possible. I wouldn't be a fan of this at all, but it would be better than omitting some albums. The other thing that makes me think this is a possibility is that the photo of the set is missing a lot of earlier, shorter albums where almost all the later albums are pictured. Hard to believe they would release this type of set and not include so many of the 70's albums because those would be the albums that people want the most.

Note that their website has bundle with a t-shirt or with a t-shirt plus a signed art print. If you want just the box set, the price is $170. I don't have an account at their site so I cannot tell what the shipping would be.

If they hadn't done the remastering campaign a few years back, I would be all in on this. I bought those recent remasters up to where they stopped). I also have that UH box set, Chapter & Verse, from 2005.

But...... if you own nothing by this band, get it if you can afford it.

They mention the LP is remastered by Andy Pearce, what about the CDs? The Nazareth box from BMG used previous mastering for the CDs, is this another case of a box with clones of something people already own? I would be very wary of spending $170 if this is just a fancy repackaging.

The albums missing are:
Very ‘Eavy, Very ‘Umble (1970)
Magician’s Birthday (1972)-the CD, I see the vinyl
Sweet Freedom (1973)
High And Mighty (1976)
Innocent Victim (1977)
Head First (1983)

Those are the ones I see missing.

I think it’s absolutely ridiculous to have an exorbitant box like this and not give every album it’s own representation.

It looks awkward and foolish and rather arbitrary.

I’ll be passing on this as the remasters were great in 2004/2005 and the deluxe editions a few years ago.

Hopefully the curated CDs will contain the missing tracks
Very ‘Eavy, Very ‘Umble (1970) is a long time favorite

I believe what they are doing is they are combining some albums and recreating the album covers as hybrids of both albums.

It looks like a combo of Very 'Eavy and Salisbury if you look closely,

I think it's really lame, especially for the price.

Shit, Wishbone Ash and Golden Earring and others did it right, why couldn't Heep?

i got to see uriah heep back in the day, great show, what i remember of it, i do know 'the park' was a showstopper.

also, it was not a large venue, and they were very loud.

My bet is that this set will grab whatever is needed from the remasters you refer to, they would specify "newly remastered by" if that ws the case would they not?

The Wishbone Ash and Gentle Giant sets have set the bar high, both used new mastering and looked and sounded great. Jan Akkerman's set was another winner. Golden Earring did use the previous Red Bullet discs IIRC so I knock it down a notch.

I was able to check the shipping on the Uriah Heep website. $48.50 to ship to the USA. No thank you.

Unless I'm missing it, it sure looks like The Magician's Birthday is included in this set on vinyl but not on compact disc. They probably figured they couldn't do that because that extra CD and cardboard sleeve would bring the price up to $175 and people can afford a $170 box set but cannot afford a $175 box set. Is one vinyl album in a 23 CD box set a draw for vinyl customers...at all? Somehow I can't see anyone saying, "yeah, this set has Magician's Birthday on vinyl...take my $170 right now." Of course, if they would have put in The Magician's Birthday on CD and left the vinyl out, that probably would have taken $15 off the price and made it a $155 box set.

I'm on the fence. I am woefully short on Uriah Heep in my collection (only Demons & Wizards). I would seriously consider this once vendors get this in North American and I can avoid paying nearly $50 in shipping. But excluding a CD copy of The Magician's Birthday makes it feel like they would be forcing me to double-dip by having to buy this and then having to buy The Magician's Birthday on CD separately. Sure, it would probably only be an extra $12, but frankly it gives me a bad vibe about the entire experience. This is supposed to be ENTIRE and EVERY...but if you don't have a turntable then it's not ENTIRE and EVERY.

It's almost like the people in the record industry are constantly looking for ways to get people not to buy their products. If you were in a struggling industry, wouldn't you go the extra mile to make sure you didn't give an interested customer a reason not to buy your product?

Hopefully I'm wrong and there is a CD copy of The Magician's Birthday in the box.

I listed the albums that are not individually represented above.

They are:

Very ‘Eavy, Very ‘Umble (1970)
Magician’s Birthday (1972)
Sweet Freedom (1973)
High And Mighty (1976)
Innocent Victim (1977)
Head First (1983)

Magician's Birthday is only on vinyl.

There's nothing even remotely rare in this set.

The 90s remasters were very well done and had loads of rarities, then those were beefed up in 2003-05 and those are the ones I still have, though they did for no apparent reason drop some rare tracks from a few of the previous remasters.

The 2016-17 Deluxe Editions were excellent but only cover 1970-72.

If you have those, you don't need this.

I found out some more info on the box as such:

Contents in full:

* 25 CD albums and four CDs compiled by the original members
* Each of the following have curated a disc of their favorite URIAH HEEP choices
Ken Hensley's Choices: 14 tracks
Lee Kerslake's Choices: 14 tracks
Mick Box's Choices: 15 tracks
Paul Newton's Choices: 14 tracks
* "The Magician's Birthday" LP featuring reimagined artwork by Roger Dean
* 78-page book featuring rarities from the band's personal archives
* Includes new notation by the original members and fully updated band member timeline.
* 2 x Roger Dean art cards including original and reimagined artwork for "The Magician's Birthday" and "Demons And Wizards"
* Includes every studio album and "Live '73"

So what you get are most of the studio albums on their own, and others are combined with certain ones.

A very nice booklet.

A useless slab of vinyl.

4 useless compilations picked by the band members.

2 useless art cards.

The unboxing video: