On the Rocks

After recording a couple of mostly-ignored solo albums and working in the short-lived supergroup Rough Diamond, David Byron tried once more to find success outside of Uriah Heep on 1981's On the Rocks. This time, he formed a full-fledged backing group, the Byron Band, that included such luminaries as ex-King Crimson saxophone player Mel Collins and young guitar virtuoso Robin George. The music Byron produced with this band attempts to filter the hard rock that he pursued with Uriah Heep through a glossier, more commercial production approach. The resulting album sounds like a heavier version of Foreigner's early sound, right down to the Ian McDonald-style saxophone frills from Mel Collins. Unfortunately, the songwriting tries so hard to fit the AOR mold that it often results in generic-sounding tunes: songs like "Rebecca" and "Never Say Die" have solid guitar work and an appealing energy to them but fail to leave much of an impression. However, when the writing gels with the band's instrumental chops, On the Rocks can be quite good: "Bad Girl" is a blues-derived mid-tempo tune that allows the band to show off their effective grasp of hard rock dynamics, and "How Do You Sleep" is a dramatic rocker that provides a solid showcase for Byron's impressive vocal chops. Unfortunately, moments like these are few and far between on this album, and this makes On the Rocks a curio that will be of little interest to anyone except David Byron fans and Uriah Heep completists. — Donald A. Guarisco.