Label: Silver Lining Music/Militia Guard
Release date: 19. 3. 2021
Production: Biff Byford
Genre: Heavy Metal
Rating: 8.0/10
Saxon. Unbelievable. The older they get, the more stubborn and defiant they become. It’s genuinely odd that their last studio album came out in 2018 and there’s still no sequel. For the past two decades, Saxon have pretty much made a habit of dropping a new studio album every two years, especially since “The Inner Sanctum” (2007). Now? Nothing, no matter how long we wait. Through a haze of “gentle” sarcasm, with Saxon that’s almost worrying. Anyway, instead the band decided to put out a collection of eleven songs: covers, either of originals by bands that inspired Saxon or of stuff the guys were avidly listening to in their teens.
The song selection is no surprise. Anyone with even the faintest clue about Saxon could guess more than half the tracks on this compilation in eleven tries. In fact, the only real surprises are the covers of Hold the Line (originally by Toto) and See My Frineds (originally by The Kinks), while The Beatles, The Jimi Hendrix Experience, The Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, and especially AC/DC, Motörhead, Black Sabbath and Thin Lizzy are pretty much the natural, automatic picks when it comes to Saxon. Covers of those last four bands are tailor-made for a group like Saxon, since their influence is felt most strongly in the band’s own early-era (eighties) material too.
The band, of course, played everything in their own manner, as they must. Saxon could’ve pulled a few more original tricks and maneuvers to inject a bigger dose of wit into each cover, but as it stands the compilation doesn’t surprise much. The material is played very “old school.” Two songs stand out because the band fit them so well into the “Saxon template of style and sound”: the first is Paperback Writer (orig. The Beatles), the second Stone Free (orig. The Jimi Hendrix Experience). Both adaptations come out great. Still, I’d urge the band to leave Toto alone from now on. Sometimes you do more harm than good with brute force and roughness. They’d be better off tackling something like Electric Light Orchestra, or, if the harder-rocking blueprint of influential bands isn’t enough for them, some who aren’t on the compilation but would’ve been more expected, e.g. The Who, Cheap Trick, Blue Oyster Cult or Budgie.
Otherwise, this album is tailor-made for the band’s most hardcore, die-hard fans, the ones who snap up anything Saxon put out. Biff sounds great on vocals. Yeah, and it’s risky to say this about a career that’s nearly 45 years long, but he’s holding up. In places his vocals are harmonized with the guitar lines, which makes for a great contrast and takes things a step further from the original. That’s done really well in one of the most successful covers, Evil Woman (original by Black Sabbath), and/or Bomber (original by Motörhead). Elsewhere, his vocal shape is astonishing on the superbly executed Immigrant Song and Speed King, which are surely the tougher nuts to crack on this album vocally (as far as range goes). As for adapting the phrasing to the meter, the old vocal fox pulled that off phenomenally too.
The production, style and approach are very old school. The production is similar to Biff’s solo album from last year. No wonder, since Biff produced the album. You’d expect scorching, fired-up riff phrasing and a merciless stampede of double-bass drumming, yet this time Saxon went for a very “old school” approach instead. The opener Paint it Black (orig. The Rolling Stones) could’ve used a lot more decibels, but as mentioned a moment ago, Saxon opted for a more classic approach, which in the case of this cover doesn’t excite or thrill at all. Especially with that “gypsy” melody toward the end, it comes across as rather childish.
That’s about it. This collection is a stopgap until the new album, and if it weren’t for the situation we’ve been putting up with for over a year now, it’s questionable whether it would exist at all, and we’d probably be holding the band’s new album in our hands today. The back of the vinyl sleeve is printed with the year 2020, even though the official release date is 19. 3. 2021. So either that’s a mistake, or the vinyl was printed a long time ago, last year. Either way, it’s clear that the band and the label, which is nothing new, have been adapting their activities to the Covid-19 scene. The new album is in the works, and that’s the main thing. We probably won’t see it before early next year, though. Meanwhile, the band’s followers can kill the hours, days and months of waiting to their heart’s content with the “Inspirations” compilation. Its release is neither an obligation nor a necessity, but for fans of the band it’s at least a welcome chance to expand their already very ‘heavy’ collection of Saxon musical documents.
Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Track list:
1. Paint It Black
2. Immigrant Song
3. Paperback Writer
4. Evil Woman
5. Stone Free
6. Bomber
7. Speed King
8. The Rocker
9. Hold The Line
10. Problem Child
11. See My Friends
Lineup:
Biff Byford – vocals
Paul Quinn – guitar
Doug Scarratt – guitar
Nibbs Carter – bass guitar
Nigel Glockler – drums
