Saxon: 8CD Collection (1979 - 1997)

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Saxon: 8CD Collection (1979 - 1997)

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Saxon are an English heavy metal band formed in 1977, in South Yorkshire. As one of the leaders of the new wave of British heavy metal, they had eight UK Top 40 albums in the 1980s including four UK Top 10 albums and two Top 5 albums. The band also had numerous singles in the UK Singles Chart and chart success all over Europe and Japan, as well as success in the US. During the 1980s Saxon established themselves as one of Europe's biggest metal acts. The band tours regularly and have sold more than 15 million albums worldwide. They are considered one of the classic metal acts and have influenced many bands such as Metallica, Mötley Crüe, Pantera, Sodom…

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Saxon: 8CD Collection (1979 - 1997)

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Saxon: 8CD Collection (1979 - 1997)

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Saxon's humble debut album was the quiet before the storm: a dress rehearsal, if you will, for the unqualified triumphs that lay just over the horizon for both the band and the New Wave of British Heavy Metal in general. Saxon were simultaneously inexperienced (when it came to the recording studio) and long in the tooth (older than most NWOBHM peers, they'd been performing in clubs for nearly a decade), and here they came to grips, not only with their material, but also with the fact that their independent record company, Carrere, didn't really know how to capture a heavy metal sound on tape. As a result, this eponymous LP only hints at Saxon's true personality, power, and songwriting potential, with early live favorites like "Judgement Day," "Militia Guard," and "Stallions of the Highway" (the first of many biker anthems) subdued by a punchless production. Other tracks suggested some lingering doubts as to musical direction, either on the band's or producers' part, because the opening "Rainbow Theme"/"Frozen Rainbow" tandem showed distinctive progressive rock traits, while "Big Teaser" and "Still Fit to Boogie" appeared to owe their lighter glam rock nuances to T. Rex. Nevertheless, the LP helped to put Saxon on the map, and their workaholic ways would quickly pay big dividends, once they learned to harness their powerful on-stage sound during their next visit to the studio while recording 1980's seminal sophomore album, Wheels of Steel.

by Eduardo Rivadavia, allmusic

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Saxon: 8CD Collection (1979 - 1997)

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After finding themselves a qualified heavy metal producer in Pete Hinton, the members of Saxon recovered from their disappointing debut in fine form with 1980's career-defining Wheels of Steel. As well as effectively setting the template for the band's most successful efforts, the album's songs positively gleamed with a bright, metallic sheen similar to that exhibited by the chrome eagle hoisting a motorcycle wheel on its iconic cover. Wasting no time with niceties, Wheels of Steel kicked straight into fifth gear with one of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal's signature anthems, "Motorcycle Man." A proto-speed metal classic, the song also reintroduced the oft-recurring biker themes that would rear up again on the even more frenzied "Freeway Mad" and the album's epic title track (as well as on many future tracks). Another song joining "Wheels of Steel" in Saxon's career roll of honor was the dramatic, lyrically unique "747 (Strangers in the Night)" (which described an airplane's emergency landing), but a slew of additional standouts like "Street Fighting Gang," "See the Light Shining," the furious "Machine Gun," and the contrastingly romantic "Suzie Hold On" (perhaps the band's finest early ballad) rounded out the album in style. Really, only "Stand Up and Be Counted" hasn't aged all that impressively, but it alone can't hold back Wheels of Steel from topping the heap of essential Saxon albums, pretty much hand in hand with its immediate successors, Strong Arm of the Law and Denim and Leather.

by Eduardo Rivadavia, allmusic

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Saxon: 8CD Collection (1979 - 1997)

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Even decades later, it's not easy to pinpoint the precise reasons for Saxon's gradual fall from grace, but suffice to say that by the time they released 1984's Crusader, the band had obviously stopped leading the New Wave of British Heavy Metal with its aggressive, blue-collar biker anthems and fallen in line behind Iron Maiden's epic historical themes and more challenging song structures. It did them no good: Crusader as a whole offers a slight improvement over the previous year's Power and the Glory from an overall songwriting perspective (the title track may have been very unlike Saxon, but was nevertheless stupendous heavy metal theater); but it also reveals a band that was perhaps taking itself too seriously. Ergo too much "Sailing to America" (tedious historical lecturing, unless it was meant to describe how Saxon were shipped to Los Angeles for this album's recording), "Do It All for You" (overwrought balladry that sailed right over the heads of its intended female audience), "Run for Your Lives" (gratuitous lyrical poppycock concluding in rather irresistible soccer chants), and not enough riotous bonhomie a la "A Little Bit of What You Fancy" and "Bad Boys (Like to Rock 'n' Roll)". Sadly, Saxon's attempt to redress this balance with their next album, Innocence Is No Excuse, would only lead to greater extremes of personality disorder and leave the group's fan base confused and utterly divided.

by Eduardo Rivadavia, allmusic

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Saxon: 8CD Collection (1979 - 1997)

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After fulfilling their contractual obligations to French independent label Carrere, Saxon signed to mighty EMI, praying for a major-label overhaul with which to reignite its ailing career. The resulting album – 1985's Innocence Is No Excuse – is one of their most controversial: it's viewed by some fans and critics as another misfire, while others consider it the last gasp of these once seemingly unbeatable New Wave of British Heavy Metal champions. Realizing that their future was at stake, vocalist Biff Byford and bassist Steve Dawson (and, to a lesser degree, guitarists Paul Quinn and Graham Oliver, plus drummer Nigel Glockler) hunkered down to the business of composing what was certainly their strongest collective set of songs since 1981's Denim and Leather. But the final layer of commercial sheen (clearly aimed at finally cracking the American market) applied to heavy metal warhorses like "Call of the Wild," "Devil Rides Out," "Everybody Up," and others rubbed many fans the wrong way. Likewise, these were also divided over the merits of strong singles like "Back on the Streets," "Rock 'n' Roll Gypsy," and the excellent ballad "Broken Heroes," which charted respectably and even earned some much needed MTV rotation for their videos, but at what price to the band's street-level credibility? The answer will never be agreed upon, but as subsequent fiascos soon proved, there was no doubt that Saxon's internal chemistry was significantly unbalanced by the subsequent departure of key songwriter Dawson – a loss from which they would take years to fully recover.

by Eduardo Rivadavia, allmusic

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Saxon: 8CD Collection (1979 - 1997)

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Saxon fans thought their heroes had reached rock bottom with 1986's Rock the Nations, but the group's next studio album, Destiny, sadly proved them frighteningly wrong. Having bored everyone to tears with the former LP's well-intentioned but uninspired back-to-basics approach, Saxon decided to go for broke in their quest to make it in America by delivering a shamefully sleek, shallow, and formulaic late-'80s pop-metal album. The choice to kick off proceedings with a surprisingly sedate cover of Christopher Cross' "Ride Like the Wind" was surprising at best, and then following it with the album's best number, "Where the Lightning Strikes," was tantamount to torture, given the largely unsalvageable dross that followed. Indeed, brave were the souls (utterly doomed, but brave) who navigated the murky waters of the atrocious, Titanic-inspired "S.O.S." – only to endure desperate ballads ("I Can't Wait Anymore," "Song for Emma") and sugar-coated headbangers (think post-1987 Whitesnake ripoffs) like "Jericho Siren" and "Calm Before the Storm." The latter wastes a touching dedication from singer Biff Byford to his recently deceased father, and even he seemed to realize it later, since the same lyrics were used again for a much better song called "Iron Wheels" in 1992. Any such chance at career redemption was entirely out of the question upon Destiny's release, however, and Saxon and their fans were arguably never more at odds.

by Eduardo Rivadavia, allmusic

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Saxon: 8CD Collection (1979 - 1997)

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Building quickly upon the foundation laid down by 1990's modest career turnaround, Solid Ball of Rock, Saxon definitively gave up trying to mimic Def Leppard and what few other British bands successfully crossed over to the American market, and fully embraced the down-to-earth, hard-hitting heavy metal style they'd once excelled at with 1992's impressive Forever Free. Scratch that: call it unbelievable, because giddy disbelief was exactly what was felt by the majority of the band's remaining loyal fan base after being walloped upside the head by Saxon's strongest, catchiest, and, yes, heaviest set of songs since 1985's Innocence Is No Excuse – maybe longer. From the opening title track's nostalgically anthemic denim-and-leather narrative through to the heretofore pent-up party atmosphere of closer "Cloud Nine," Forever Free positively bristles with muscular riff machines ("Hole in the Sky," "Down and Dirty," "Can't Stop Rockin'") and kinetic speed metal pounders ("One Step Away," "Nighthunter") and lets up on the accelerator but twice: the first being for the evocative ballad "Iron Wheels" (not written about motorcycles, incidentally, but undervalued blue-collar laborers of many stripes), and the second for the distinctly funky, only slightly more accessible "Grind," which was still anything but a concession to mainstream radio. That's right, for all their recent musical sins committed in the name of superficial glam metal glory, the members of Saxon appeared close to fully rehabilitated on this unquestionable return to form, and henceforth they would rarely, if ever, turn their backs on true heavy metal again.

by Eduardo Rivadavia, allmusic

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Saxon: 8CD Collection (1979 - 1997)

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Even though Saxon had convinced many skeptics that they might still have plenty of quality heavy metal to offer thanks to career-saving early-‘90s albums like Solid Ball of Rock and Forever Free, a three-year recording hiatus and another independent label change hardly foreshadowed an imminent return to glory for the band's wary, ill-treated fans. And yet, wouldn't you know, the old Barnsley bums managed just that with 1995's absolutely massive-sounding Dogs of War, an album few imagined Saxon capable of, following years of embarrassing creative misfires. Once past its thunderous opening title track (an unqualified Saxon classic for the ages), Dogs of War delivered a slew of improbably memorable and distinctive numbers, including the ever-reliable biker anthem, "Big Twin Rolling (Coming Home)," the fittingly ominous "Great White Buffalo" (no relation to the Ted Nugent staple), the slow-building "Demolition Alley," and the slate-cleaning mission statement of "Yesterday's Gone." In fact, there wasn't a single outright dud in sight (OK, "Walking Through Tokyo" excepted), and this ensured that Dogs of War hit home with a level of confidence and, most importantly, honesty, that Saxon hadn't displayed in eons. No more mindless anthems for poodle-haired arenas they'd never fill; no more sappy-ass ballads for groupies they'd never lay; no more mediocre grist for the major-label mill they'd never even be allowed to touch; no more bullsh*t, period – just straight-ahead heavy metal that felt like a balm to the band's long-suffering faithful, and served as a fitting last call for longtime guitarist Graham Oliver, who bowed out of the group after two decades of service following this release.

by Eduardo Rivadavia, allmusic

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Saxon: 8CD Collection (1979 - 1997)

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At some point during the mid-'90s, the now defunct CMC International (later to transform into the grossly irresponsible record industry cautionary tale, Sanctuary Records) seemingly found a way to sign every available "no longer hip" heavy metal band on the planet; so it was only a matter of time before they snapped up fallen New Wave of British Heavy Metal icons Saxon. As un-hip as they were, though, the reality was that Saxon had then-recently enjoyed a highly unexpected return to favor among discerning metal heads, thanks to a string of steadily improving albums, which, if not quite harbingers of a commercial breakthrough (heck, such thoughts were what got the band in trouble to begin with), certainly justified the renewed interest among the band's core. Too bad, then, that Unleash the Beast represented a small step backwards in the group's gradual rehabilitation process. Mind you, aesthetically speaking, the members of Saxon (including guitarist Doug Scarratt, stepping in for departed founding member Graham Oliver) were keeping their eyes on the prize – stay the course, stay heavy, stay metal – but creatively, Unleash the Beast's songs simply lacked quite the same inspiration of previous efforts. Stand-out tracks like "Terminal Velocity," "Circle of Light," and "The Preacher" came surrounded by a larger number of indistinct efforts, which, if nothing else, comprised possibly the heaviest sounds and darkest lyrics of Saxon's career; a fact which certainly earned points with the more-is-more element of the heavy metal audience. Perhaps more crucially, Unleash the Beast and the association with CMC made it possible for Saxon to tour America for the first time in almost a decade, and thus contributed to their steady climb back into the heavy metal conscience, leading to even more widespread success in the new millennium.

by Eduardo Rivadavia, allmusic