Artist: Saxon
Label: EMI Records
Release: 2011
Rating: 4/5
The legends of the N.W.O.B.H.M. movement, today gentlemen who have lived through pretty much every possible career high and low along their colorful road, are still sticking to their steady biorhythm of a two-year gap between studio releases.
The iconography stays the same: singing the praises of the glory days of great knightly battles for the kingdom. This time there’s no crest with lions, no crosses, no swords,…. For the cover the guys went with an actual World War I propaganda poster showing Lord Kitchener calling on all upstanding British lads to report to the nearest recruitment center as soon as possible.
This time Saxon felt no need to dress the record up with excessive pomp. The album opens with no expected intro, straight and direct, with a searing, old-school riff.
The band has pretty much used up and tried out every basic guitar phrase in its arsenal, so it no longer manages to surprise with new releases. These more or less pull, stylistically and/or sonically, toward a particular period of the band, comparable to individual albums from Saxon’s career.
This time the guys have shed the pompous garb worn by its predecessor “Into The Labyrinth” (2009), and “Call To Arms” carries a feeling of greater directness and greater classic old-school boldness, bringing back the vibe of the late nineties, which were marked by the albums “Unleash The Beast” (1997) and “Metalhead” (1999).
The excellent opener Hammer Of The Gods has a classic, infectious Saxon riff that won’t leave the hearts of true heavy metal devotees cold.. Real Saxon fans will adopt this album as their own after just a few seconds. What surprises most, though, is the instrumental middle section of the opening track Hammer Of The Gods, which is varied and wittily put together, and in which Nigel Glockler’s explosive transitional rolls especially stand out. The instrumental middle sections are particularly interesting this time around, and so gratefully broaden the dynamic and atmospheric range of individual songs.
The song Back in ’79 is a sort of modern-day reheating of the legacy of Denim And Leather, which has shown up through later Saxon albums, especially in songs with the word “rock” worked into the title. On the “Into The Labyrinth” album, that spot was taken by, say, I Got to Rock (to stay alive). The song is built for firing up the crowd at gigs, when Biff shouts: “Show me your hands!!!”
Surviving Against The Odds is a proper rolling Saxon march, born to be played on stage, and besides the excellent untamed riffing, it stands out for its hellishly ripping bass line, which digs in unstoppably in a solid rhythmic harness. Mists of Avalon develops in line with the atmospheric legacy of the song Unleash the Beast. From the verse, the transition into the chorus, the chorus itself, and of course some of the lead phrases too. The excellent title track Call To Arms is the moment of the biggest dose of pomp and epicness on the album. The band was obviously aware of this too. It made the most of the basic melody by dressing the song up with additional orchestral arrangements. Extremely effective and fully compatible, which is why this version earned its place on the album as an extra – bonus track.. Saxon have been cultivating and deepening this epicness since the very start of their career (The Eagle Has Landed, Crusader,…) Some classic rock n’ roll charging comes from the song Chasing the Bullet, deepening the old-school character of the album, while Afterburner rages in a similar style to the record’s opener and brings one of the fastest songs on the album. Its position on the track list (in the second half of the album) is a welcome one, since it keeps the record upright, unbridled and razor-sharp in metal terms. The darkest and most dramatic moment of the album is captured in When Doomsday Comes, which surprises by integrating and reconfiguring the “Perfect Strangers” trick in the basic guitar phrase. The phrase is emphasized by keyboards, and the special guest on the album this time is Deep Purple keyboardist Don Airey (also keep an ear out for the soloing in the outro of the song). Still astonished?
Saxon aren’t doing anything new. They stick to what they are. What they’ve embodied since their rebirth, or more precisely since “Solid Ball of Rock”, of course with some captured shards of the golden eighties. The destructive intensity and pomp captured on the albums “Lionheart”, “The Inner Sanctum” and “Into The Labyrinth” is not as pronounced this time, and what’s pushing to the front is the spirit of the late nineties, which calls for the classic and old-school. Saxon move through tried-and-true phrases that they only slightly twist, and the same goes for the basic melodic lines. At this they’re, as seasoned and experienced old foxes, extremely successful, creating a set of songs that can boast the required color, variety and dynamic development. The look of the album follows suit, with an exceptionally vivid sound and dynamics. It smells of old-school Saxon cosmetics like nothing has in a long time. Many phrases already recall phrases from older songs, and Byford has by now thoroughly strained out the lyrical range too, since the verses feature phrases he was already using in the early eighties.
A welcome shake-up of the “rut” of the last three albums, it will once again make the band’s die-hard fans happy. The album will especially please those of you who glorify the legacy of the band that wound its way through the nineties. The legends aren’t running out of breath, and “Call To Arms” hits with the full harness of untamed, classic Saxon heavy metal charging. Saxon don’t know the meaning of retreating from the battlefield, and the beast remains unsated and starved for the blood of its victims!
Lineup
Biff Byford – vocals
Paul Quinn – guitar
Doug Scarratt – guitar
Nibbs Carter – bass
Nigel Glockler – drums
GUEST MUSICIAN:
Don Airey – keyboards
Production
Biff Byford & Toby Jepson
Track list
1. Hammer of the Gods (4:23)
2. Back In ’79 (3:28)
3. Surviving Against The Odds (5:02)
4. Mists of Avalon (5:02)
5. Call To Arms (4:29)
6. Chasing the Bullet (4:14)
7. Afterburner (3:06)
8. When Doomsday Comes (Hybrid Theory soundtrack) (4:29)
9. No Rest for the Wicked (3:09)
10. Ballad of the Working Man (3:48)
11. Call To Arms (orchestral version) (4:28)
