It is my contention that Saxon are the most underrated band around. That might sound daft when they’ve been around as long as this, but they never seem to get the credit they deserve.
Time and time again, album after album, gig after gig and year after year, they’re doing what they do, and rather like Magnum, say (Tony Clarkin RIP) what they do has an incredible level of consistency and doesn’t really sound like anyone else, either. Not really.
Always lumped with the obvious peers, they are metal on their own terms. “The Prophecy” does the added gravitas thing, the band don’t need to, but it is always fun when it does.
Then Biff let’s out a scream and away we go. The most British, heavy and metal of British Heavy Metal bands, everything that’d great about Saxon distilled in one song. “The fight for good and evil which one will it be?”
The answer, of course, is that metal will conquer all.
And like all the best Saxon records (and maybe they don’t make bad ones) it’s a journey through history. “Madame Guillotine” gets its fists up for a romp round with Marie Antoinette, and if “Fire And Steel” is one of the most metal titles of 2024, then its one of the only songs about Sheffield steel too.
Its impressive how fresh this sounds. Let’s be honest, you’ve heard loads of songs about UFO conspiracy if you listen to metal, but Byford always finds something, and “Something In Roswell” has a fresh angle.
But if you strip it away, this is a guitar record, the riffs are premier league, the solos slash. “Kubla Khan And The Merchant Of Venice” is not the overblown prog thing it might appear from the title, rather its just a top class metal track.
“Pirates Of The Airwaves” might be the best of the lot, mind you. There’s a neat nostalgia to Saxon singing a track about listening to music on a transistor radio in bed, considering that the first time I’d heard them was on the Friday Rock Show”. And it might be that they remain as big fans as me too, given the joy that springs forth.
“1066” seemingly just for grins reminds just about every power metal band who the Kings of that are too (or who would be if they wanted to be).
“Witches Of Salem” ushers itself in on the back of some thunderous drumming from xxx and its quite something to keep producing at this stage of a career.
And with such a sense of fun, too. There’s such a lot of weighty subjects here, so it’s ok that “Supercharger” just wants to get in the fast lane: “you only have one life, so you might as well have some fun” sings Biff and maybe in so doing he’s hit the nail on the head for the whole thing. The reason why Saxon are so damn good, still? Because they love it.
A British institution, “Hell Fire And Damnation” is utterly glorious.
Rating 9/10
