Label: Silver Lining Music
Release date: February 21, 2020
Production: Biff Byford
Length: 51.59 min
Genre: Heavy Metal / Hard Rock
Rating: 8.0 / 10
Biff Byford is a man of steel. No debate there. With him, Saxon lived, survived and then some. Over the last three decades they’ve become a fixture of the concert circuit, at least in the “United States” of Germany, where they play constantly, even at the biggest festivals. So Biff is a legend. An iconic figure. After many, many years, the man made the conciliatory personal decision that the time had finally come to record a solo studio album. Truth be told, Biff could have made quite a few of them, though Saxon have made that many more, if not even a few too many, but let’s leave that debate for another time.
Enough of the tiresome intro. A solid fifty minutes of playing presents Biff Byford this time as a rocker, a great spiritual rock shepherd! A rocker first and foremost, not a metalhead. So the legendary vocalist leads us through fields and wide-open spaces all the way back to his childhood, when rock and roll was still a young and innocent kid, and Biff grew up listening to blues, progressive and psychedelic rock, and The Beatles. He makes no secret of his enthusiasm for his favorites. So for his studio debut he decided to cover the Wishbone Ash classic Throw Down the Sword, which shouldn’t be taken too seriously, since it’s a bit of extra studio fun for Biff, but if you run into the singer somewhere, he’ll gladly whisper to you what a huge fan of the band he’s always been and that the move is a kind of tribute, since it’s the first song he ever heard, and it tells of wars and battles, which inspired him a great deal when he later started writing lyrics and music himself. But the original is the original. Untouchable. The same goes for another nostalgic detour, the cover of Simon & Garfunkel’s Scarborough Fair, which strays considerably further from the original and, of the two covers on the album, works better, so it’s also the more interesting one. Above all, one of the more interesting tracks is the longest, The Pit And The Pendulum, which, after a short flamenco prelude, Inquisitor, unfolds into a seven-minute gloomy epic march, or anthemic theater, with chordal swerves in the lead phrase that you don’t exactly expect from Biff, and yet. Compositionally the most varied track, which sturdy old Biff called his “progressive” moment of songwriting (he’s long been known as a big fan of the legendary Yes, and everything they do).
The album is playful. Not parodic, but seriously playful. Rock’n’roll goes hand in hand with a good gag and a good party, and our Peter Rodney (a.k.a. “Biff”) knows that all too well. That’s how the album opens, too. Bombastic, inviting, ravenous and, of course, piercing. With Welcome to the Show, which carries an AC/DC-style phrase, though the track would work without a hitch on any Saxon album. That feeling gets deepened in what follows (“No shit Sherlock?”) by the title track (it works like an upside-down Wheels of Steel), and by the tracks Pedal To the Metal and Hearts Of Steel (Biff has probably been pondering the deep, penetrating meaning of those two titles his whole life), which bring his solo album closer to the Saxon catalog, the former to the “Wheels Of Steel” and “Strong Arm of the Law” era, the latter to the second half of the nineties (“Metalhead”, “Unleash the Beast”). A track like Me And You would never, ever belong on a Saxon album, because it’s a love ballad. Together with the two covers, it’s actually the less interesting track once again, and Biff did pick it as one of the album’s singles, but it’s a welcome inclusion that reminds listeners not to get carried away and get the deceptive feeling that they’re listening to just another Saxon album.
So that the whole thing wouldn’t be too “readable”, let’s call it “trivial”, Biff gathered a crew of razor-sharp musicians around him, among whom the devilish guitarist Fredrik Akesson (Opeth) stands out, not skimping on ultrasonic solo outbursts, which once again thankfully steers the album away from sounding too much like a classic Saxon record. “School Of Hard Knocks” was produced by Biff Byford himself at Brighton Electric studio (Brighton, United Kingdom), and mixed at Queen Street Studios (Stockholm, Sweden) by Mats Valentin. Biff’s friends guest on the album: Phil Campbell (Motörhead, Phil Campbell & The Bastard Sons), Alex Holzworth (Rhapsody Of Fire), Nick Baker (Voices), Dave Kemp (Wayward Sons) and Nibbs Carter (Saxon).
You’d have expected an even more rock-flavored album. It carries a pile of solutions that could be dropped onto Saxon albums in a heartbeat. Fans of Biff Byford’s iron voice and Saxon’s music in general will be thrilled once again. That’s the fundamental takeaway, along with the fact that this is, all in all, a very good new album, backed by a revered vocalist who long ago passed into legend and is a giant rocky massif, firmly set in the mountain range of classic metal in our galaxy.
author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Track list:
1. Welcome to the Show
2. School of Hard Knocks
3. Inquisitor
4. The Pit and the Pendulum
5. Worlds Collide
6. Scarborough Fair
7. Pedal to the Metal
8. Hearts of Steel
9. Throw Down the Sword
10. Me and You
11. Black and White
Line-up:
Biff Byford – vocals, bass guitar
Fredrik Åkesson – guitar
Gus Macricostas – bass guitar
Christian Lundqvist – drums
Mats Valentin – acoustic guitar
Guest musicians:
Phil Campbell (Motörhead, Phil Campbell & The Bastard Sons) – guitar
Alex Holzworth (Rhapsody Of Fire) – drums
Nick Barker (Voices, Cradle Of Filth) – drums
Dave Kemp (Wayward Sons) – keyboards
Nibbs Carter (Saxon) – bass guitar
