High and Mighty (album)

High and Mighty is the ninth studio album by English rock band Uriah Heep, released in May 1976 by Bronze Records in the UK and Warner Bros. Records in the US. High and Mighty was the last Uriah Heep album to feature bassist John Wetton, and vocalist and founding member David Byron who was fired later that year due to his troubles with alcohol and differences with band priorities.

John Wetton and Ken Hensley shared vocal duties on the single "One Way or Another".

The original vinyl release was a single sleeve, with the lyrics reproduced on the inner liner.

The album was remastered and reissued by Castle Communications in 1997 with two bonus tracks, and again in 2004 in an expanded deluxe edition.

Reception
The album was not well received, as stylistically it veered from their earlier progressive rock vein into more mainstream territory, and lacked the group's signature lengthy compositions and fantastical subject matter. "Several of the songs find the band flirting with pop elements in a way that doesn't complement their hard rocking style", said Donald A. Guarisco in his retrospective AllMusic review. He added that High and Mighty "shows flashes of the group's old firepower, but is ultimately sunk by a combination of unfocused experimentation and uneven songwriting". Martin Popoff called the album "effeminate, illogical, overblown, grasping for straws", citing only the song "One Way or Another" as "promising" and the rest a squandering of "the band's flickering talents".

Personnel

 * Uriah Heep
 * David Byron – lead vocals (except "One Way or Another")
 * Mick Box – lead guitar, acoustic guitar, 12-string acoustic guitar
 * Ken Hensley – organ, acoustic and electric piano, Moog synthesizer, tubular bells, acoustic, electric 12-string and slide guitars, pedal steel guitar, backing vocals, co-lead vocals on "One Way or Another"
 * Lee Kerslake – drums, percussion, backing vocals
 * John Wetton – bass guitar, Mellotron, electric piano, backing vocals, lead vocals on "One Way or Another"


 * Production
 * Ashley Howe – engineer
 * Peter Gallen – engineer on tracks 1 and 7
 * John Gallen – assistant engineer
 * Alan Corbeth – mastering at RCA Studios, London
 * Mike Brown and Robert Corich – remastering (1997 and 2004 reissues)