"Conquest" Album Description:
"Conquest" (released February 1980 on Bronze) is Uriah Heep doing that awkward thing bands do when the ground shifts under their boots: they don’t fall over, but they definitely change their stance. New singer (John Sloman), new drummer (Chris Slade), and a sound that aims straighter at the lights than the old wizard-and-demons years ever bothered to.
I remember the first time I handled the sleeve: matte, no nonsense, and the cover photo nodding hard at that famous Iwo Jima flag image. It’s not subtle. Martin Poole shot it and helped steer the look with Karl Bosley and Linda Curry, like they wanted to say: “This is a new regime, please update your expectations.” Whether you wanted your expectations updated is another matter.
The record itself feels built for 1980 rooms — cleaner edges, more AOR-friendly posture — and you can hear the hands on the desk: produced by the band with John Gallen and Gerry Bron, with Gallen also engineering. That explains the polish. It doesn’t explain the mood, though. This is a contentious Heep album for a reason: it can sound like a band arguing with its own past while trying not to miss the next train.
Songs? They don’t “appear,” they shove their way in. “No Return” sets the tone, “Imagination” and “Feelings” lean into the smoother side, and “Out on the Street” snaps back with a bit of grit. “It Ain’t Easy” has that title because, well… it isn’t. And just to kill a persistent myth: “Heartless Land” isn’t on this album — wrong decade, wrong record.
If you come to "Conquest" begging for the early-’70s thunderstorm, you’ll probably complain and blame the times. If you come in expecting a band trying to survive 1980 with its dignity still attached, it’s a fascinating listen — not always lovable, but rarely boring. And boring is the one sin Heep usually avoids, even when they’re making you squint a little.
