...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
Heavy metal subculture headbanger, hesher, mosher and heavy, with the term thrasher being used only for fans of thrash metal music, which began to differentiate itself from other varieties of metal in the late 80's. These vary with time and regional divisions, but "headbanger" and "metalhead" are universally accepted to refer to fans or the subculture itself. Heavy metal fans have created a "subculture of alienation" with its own standards for achieving authenticity within the group. Deena Weinstein’s book "Heavy Metal: The Music And Its Culture" argues that heavy metal “…has persisted far longer than most genres of rock music” due to the