It’s safe to say that Saxon’s glory period sort of died out after Power And The Glory. Those first five albums are all bangers, I love them all. They had this ability to make kick ass metal albums but with the ear firmly on melody and song structure. You can sing along to all the songs on those albums.
After Power, things started to slowly go down as did their popularity. Now credit where it’s due, they have consistently kept pumping out albums where others did not and they kept their name in the spotlight culminating with this, their 24th studio album (not counting the cover albums), and it’s actually quite good. No, it doesn’t sound like Saxon of old but they do sound like a band with its finger firmly on the euro metal pulse.
Biff’s love of history is very evident on Saxon albums, but this one more than the others as every songs has an historical theme. Except Pirates Of The Airwaves where Biff is reminiscing on where he used to listen to new music when he was but a young boy. As usual with Andy Sneap, the production is on the money with plenty of crunch added to the clarity. My favourite tune is There’s Something In Roswell as it’s the one song that has that old school chugga riff and groove.
Not bad at all.
8/10 from The Grooveman.
