Their current lineup consists of guitarist Mick Box, keyboardist Phil Lanzon, lead vocalist Bernie Shaw, drummer Russell Gilbrook, and bassist Dave Rimmer.

I was a big Vanilla Fudge fan, with their Hammond organ and searing guitar on top and we had David's high vibrato vocals anyway so that's how we decided to shape it", Box recalled.

[8] Their 1970 debut album, …Very 'Eavy …Very 'Umble (released as Uriah Heep in the United States), introduced Hensley's heavy organ and the band's guitar-driven sound, with David Byron's theatrical, dynamic vocals soaring above thunderous sonic backgrounds, although acoustic and jazz elements also featured in the mix.

Feeling marginalised and having recently been badly shaken up when he was involved in an accident in Germany in one of the band's cars, first bassist Paul Newton left, in November 1971, and was briefly replaced by Mark Clarke.

While its title and Roger Dean's sleeve both suggested that the band was romantically working medieval myth into their songs—and surely songs like "Rainbow Demon" and "The Wizard" (co-written by Mark Clarke, during his short stay) did have thematic links with fantasy world – a more straightforward,[16] hard-rocking approach was also apparent.

31 US)[5] came out, with "Sweet Lorraine" released as an American single and the title track (a multi-part fantasy epic featuring Hensley–Byron vocal duel and Box's extensive guitar solo in the middle) being the album's highlight.

Having gained worldwide recognition, the band quit the fantasy world in lyrics and made an obvious stab at versatility by adding funk ("Dreamer") and an acoustic number along the lines of contemporary singer/songwriters ("Circus") elements to the palette.

Soon after going out of hospital, Thain, in Sounds, openly accused manager Gerry Bron of having turned Uriah Heep into a mere "financial thing" and was fired two months after the group's final gig of 1974 at New Theatre in Oxford on 14 December.

[16] John Wetton (ex-Family and King Crimson) joined the band in March 1975 and with him Return to Fantasy (June 1975) was recorded; representing a revitalised Uriah Heep, it soared up to No.

Mick Box fell off stage in Louisville, Kentucky, on 2 August 1975, breaking the radial bone in his right arm (but he persevered through both the set and the tour, receiving three injections a night).

"[20] Uriah Heep recruited bassist Trevor Bolder (ex-David Bowie, Mick Ronson), and after having auditioned David Coverdale (Deep Purple, Whitesnake), Ian Hunter (Mott the Hoople) and Gary Holton (Heavy Metal Kids), brought in John Lawton, formerly of Lucifer's Friend and the Les Humphries Singers, with whom they turned totally away from fantasy-oriented lyrics and multi-part compositions back towards a more straightforward hard rock sound typical of the era.

K. Blows), "a new vigour and confidence" (according to a Record Mirror review)[21] and also the new singer's abilities: the latter (according to AllMusic), although lacking the multi-octave range of David Byron, "boasted an impressive and emotionally rich hard rock voice that instantly jelled with the Uriah Heep sound".

"[21] Innocent Victim, released in November 1977, "had a slight edge on Firefly" according to Box, but still in retrospect this "blend of sharp, short rockers and pop-friendly ballads" looked like "an attempt to court the American AOR market".

"Too poppy" for Mick Box's liking (but still, "too eccentric to fit the bill of an AOR record", according to Allmusic),[24] it was well received at the time (Sounds gave it 4 stars) but failed to chart.

[28] Produced by Ashley Howe, the Abominog album (according to Blows) was "important ... in the way it pulled Heep out of the Seventies and thrust them into the Eighties with determination muscle", even if it sounded a bit too American.

Head First (May 1983), produced again by Ashley Howe (who, according to Goalby, became "like the sixth member of the band"),[29] followed much in the same vein, pursuing (according to AllMusic) "a similar combination of heavy metal firepower and AOR sleekness".

[32] Massive Asian and South American tours followed before the band returned to the studio with producer Tony Platt and a new deal with CBS's Portrait label secured by new manager Harry Maloney.

[32] Then John Sinclair quit, deciding to join Ozzy Osbourne, and keyboardist Phil Lanzon (Grand Prix, Sad Café) came in, fitting in immediately into the Box-envisaged scheme of things.

[36] The lineup remained unchanged from 1986 until 2007, with veteran Mick Box at the helm, Trevor Bolder on bass, Lee Kerslake on drums, vocalist Bernie Shaw and Phil Lanzon on keyboards.

[37] At Moscow's Olympic Stadium the band played ten consecutive nights to a total of 180,000 people (following a reception that Bernie Shaw remembered as being "something like Beatlemania"), which was represented in the international press as not just an achievement for Uriah Heep but a major breakthrough for Western music in general.

After a series of sell-out dates in Czechoslovakia, East Berlin and Bulgaria the band returned to Britain for the Reading Festival in August 1988 and toured the UK with the Dogs D'Amour.

Raging Silence, produced by Richard Dodd and released in May 1989, was followed by a return to the Soviet Union, concerts in Poland, East Berlin, six dates in Brazil and another British tour.

[36] Produced by Trevor Bolder and released early in 1991, Different World got a mixed reception from the press (put down in Kerrang!, hailed in Metal Hammer) and sold poorly.

Touring incessantly, the band issued some compilations of which Rarities from the Bronze Age and The Lansdowne Tapes (featuring previously unreleased material from the early 1970s) are considered most noteworthy.

[36] In late March and early April 1995, the band's former singer John Lawton briefly rejoined Uriah Heep for two weeks to tour South Africa and Austria with Deep Purple, filling in for Bernie Shaw, who was suffering from voice problems at the time.

[43] "This collection underlines again that Uriah Heep are deserving great respect for their past achievements but far more importantly it makes it crystal clear that this is a band with a bright future as well as a glorious history", wrote Chris Kee in his 9/10 review in Powerplay magazine's February 2010 issue.

In May 2013, when the band toured The Netherlands, Germany, Austria, Italy and Switzerland, they were again joined by their late 1970s era singer John Lawton, who was covering for Bernie Shaw taking time off for a routine medical procedure.

On 15 October that year, the group played alongside Ken Hensley and Lee Kerslake at a special two-hour concert at Crocus City Hall in Moscow.

[50] In a July 2020 interview with Sea of Tranquility, guitarist Mick Box and bassist Dave Rimmer confirmed that Uriah Heep were scheduled to begin recording their 25th studio album in early 2021.

[17][69] In a 2018 interview, guitarist Mick Box cited "five-part vocal harmonies, Hammond organ and wah-wah guitar" as the main elements of the band's sound.