Saxon

I quite like the song and hope that the rest of the album keeps up with this one.

And Biff is one of my favourite singers.
 
I like it too. The vocals make this song good actually. The second guitar solo by Quinn is messy though. I prefer the other guy (first solo).
 
I like it. Biff is a good singer. I've got a signed Crusader poster on my wall. I'm more inclined towards modern Saxon though than their "golden era".
 
Not sure where golden era ends, and where modern Saxon begins, but my favourite album (by far!) is the masterpiece called Unleash the Beast from 1997.
Dark, with fantastic melodies and guitar solos. IMO, they never reached that level afterwards. Lionheart is one of the tracks that reach this level, (one of their best songs!) but as a whole album, it didn't reach that level, nor did other albums.
 
I haven't actually heard that, but Lionheart is one of my favorite albums so I'll check that out ASAP. :)
 
I really enjoy Into the Labyrinth and The Inner Sanctum. As an album I actually prefer Killing Ground to Lionheart, but I think Unleash the Beast is pretty solid too. Not a fan of their older stuff. I dunno, I wasn't impressed by that snippet from Battering Ram but I'm open to it growing on me. I need to check out Sacrifice as well, I haven't been keeping up to date with their stuff.
 
I saw a positive review, it was ranked as a top 10 album of this month, in Aardschok magazine. Haven't checked it out yet. I am not very impressed by Saxon in the last 10 years or so, so I'll keep my expectations low.
 
Saxon is an odd band, lot's of good pieces in their music, only saw them live once (in the late 1980s), they play and sound well live. But the pieces really do not fit together that well ... their music just lacks something, IMO, that gets it from "that's pretty good" to "this fucking rocks", despite some sporadic "this fucking rocks" here and there.
 
My song-by-song review of the album (as I listen to it for the first time):

Battering Ram - Solid song. It's relatively simple, but the main riff and the solos are pretty good. Chorus is kinda underwhelming... just repeating the song title is kinda lame.
The Devil's Footprint - Riffs are really nice and heavy, and the song has a really good groove going on. Solo section is again pretty awesome. But again, song-title-only-chorus is underwhelming.
Queen Of Hearts - This one sounds a bit too dark for the sake of being dark and the chorus is underwhelming again.
Destroyer - Again, nice verses. Again, song-title-only-chorus. Wtf guys.
Hard & Fast - 5th song in a row with song-title-only-chorus :facepalm: At least the lead guitars are pretty good on this one.
Eye Of The Storm - 6th song in a row with song-title-only-chorus :facepalm: Solid beginning, but nothing special afterwards.
Stand Your Ground - 7th song in a row with song-title-only-chorus :facepalm: Main riff is too hard rockish, but the solo section is again good with some keyboards thrown in.
Top Of The World - 8th song in a row with song-title-only-chorus :facepalm: For fuck's sake. Is it really that hard to write more than one line for a chorus? At this point I don't even care about the good parts of songs because the repetitive choruses are too annoying <_<
To The End - Finally a song with a bit more complex chorus. Still has the song title in it but at least it consists of more than one line. However, it's musically probably the worst song on the album :( Slow plodding hard rock.
Kingdom Of The Cross - This was so slow and boring and plodding I almost fell asleep.
Three Sheets To The Wind (The Drinking Song) - Hard rock :puke:

Overall: doubt I'll be coming back to this album in the near future. Horrible choruses are too offputting to make me listen to the good parts.
 
I still didn't hear the album. How d0 you like the melodies, Night Prowler? Only the Good Die Young and SSOASS have a simple title-based chorus (from a lyrical point of view), but I find those excellent.
 
Forostar said:
How d0 you like the melodies, Night Prowler?
Click to expand...
I don't think there's a lot of them on the album, songs are mostly riff based. There are a few harmonies in the solo sections, but they are very short.

And OTGDY and SSOASS have so much awesome stuff going on that I forgive them when it comes to choruses :P Plus Bruce's delivery is way more interesting than Biff's.
 
Just saw Saxon and UFO on the opening night of their US tour last night in Houston at the Scout Bar. We walked in at 8:30 and about 30 seconds later, Saxon walks in behind us and takes the stage! Talk about great timing. This was my first time to see Saxon. They did not disappoint. Even though I am a UFO fan and think they are a great live band, I think the crowd was more packed during Saxon. Thinned out a little bit during UFO.

What surprised me is I thought this was a co-headlining tour. It is not. Saxon played 12 songs to UFO's 15. Wish it had been more even but I did enjoy UFO's longer set. Just wanted to experience more Saxon. Saxon played about 1 hour 10 minutes; UFO 90 minutes

Saxon - was very surprised they did not play Denim & Leather. Dallas 1PM was VERY well received by the crowd.
UFO - Vinnie Moore was amazing during the extended part of Rock Bottom

http://www.setlist.fm/setlist/ufo/2017/scout-bar-houston-tx-43f9dfb7.html
http://www.setlist.fm/setlist/saxon/2017/scout-bar-houston-tx-43f9dfab.html
 
Just read the setlists for UFO & Saxon in San Antonio and they switched places from when I saw them in Houston. This time, UFO was first and Saxon played the longer set. Guess it depends on the night...
 
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