...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 music use of narcotics. In the wake of the new wave of British heavy metal and Judas Priest's breakthrough "British Steel" (1980), heavy metal became increasingly popular in the early 1980s. Many metal artists benefited from the exposure they received on MTV, which began airing in 1981—sales often soared if a band's videos screened on the channel. Def Leppard's videos for "Pyromania" (1983) made them superstars in America and Quiet Riot became the first domestic heavy metal band to top the "Billboard" chart with "Metal Health" (1983). One of the seminal events in metal's growing popularity was the 1983 US Festival