...Very 'Eavy ...Very 'Umble signed to that label. The album shows the band trying out various genres a mix of heavy metal and progressive rock rather than the hard rock that they would become known for on later albums. Tracks 3 and 8 were recorded as Spice songs prior to the band's renaming as Uriah Heep, and featured session player Colin Wood on keyboards. When Ken Hensley joined Spice in late 1969, the tracks were not re-recorded. The album was generally panned by the mainstream critical press upon its release, although it has since been acknowledged as an early classic of the heavy metal
Speed metal German heavy metal scene, which emerged in the early to mid-1980s. Of particular importance was their 1982 track "Fast as a Shark". Speed metal eventually evolved into thrash metal. Although many tend to equate the two subgenres, others argue that there is a distinct difference between them. In his book "", Ian Christe states that "...thrash metal relies more on long, wrenching rhythmic breaks, while speed metal... is a cleaner and more musically intricate subcategory, still loyal to the dueling melodies of classic metal." However, on the very next page, Christe calls speed metal a "subset of thrash metal" and