Saxon - Sacrifice

Published February 18 2013

*=Staff's pick	Procession Sacrifice* Made In Belfast Warriors Of The Road* Guardians Of The Tomb Stand Up And Fight Walking The Steel Night Of The Wolf* Wheels Of Terror Standing In A Queue

Genre	Heavy Metal	Biff Byford	Vocals
Tracks	10	Paul Quinn	Guitar
Running time	39 Min.	Doug Scarratt	Guitar
Label	UDR/EMI	Nibbs Carter	Bass
Release	01 March 2013	Nigel Glockler	Drums
Country	England	-	Keyboard
Producer	Biff Byford
Similar artists	---

Release date pushed back to March 1st. Originally set for February 22nd.

Saxon never seems to rest. No breaks and never on hiatus, so when I just have swallowed their last release, Call To Arms, they're back with another one. When comparing to other established and consisting veteran metal bands, this is a perfect example to not be forgotten in any way. This band also always deliver the goods, both on records and live, so with a new Saxon release in my hands, I'm sure I won't be disappointed, even if the playing time lands at a modest near forty minutes.

A really boring and weak, near the two minute mark, jungle-intro called Procession, which is connected to the title track's lyrics, and the closer, Standing In A Queue, which sounds like the perfect b-side or bonus track, are two tracks I don't care much for.

The remaining eight songs varies from good to great. The good old trademarked Saxon riffs and licks in Warriors Of The Road get my nostalgic emotions rolling. Not too complex, just kind of simple fingering and that's sometimes all it takes to create a brilliant song. Faster, slower and groovier tracks succeed each other and Sacrifice is rather similar to their latest releases with riff based heavy metal. Nothing new when it comes to Saxon of course, as the similarity is more a melody thing.

Biff Byford voice is still going strong, even if it's not as powerful as it used to be. When considering his now respectable age of sixty-two, I say he's still got some good years in front of him. Not relevant, but this man is at the same age as my old man and with that perspective, Biff's effort is standing out as awesome.

Sacrifice is arguably not their best work up to date. Yet a good album that will spin in my home in the future as well. Pretty much what I expected from the Brits. 7 chalices. I will also have the opportunity to see them perform on stage in a month. The average Saxon fan will of course scream their lungs out for the classics, but I'm on the contrary pretty excited and more interested to see how these new songs will go down.

Performance	Originality	Production	Vocals	Songwriting
8	5	7	7	7

Summary
7 chalices of 10 - Tobbe