BAND: SAXON
ALBUM: THUNDERBOLT
RELEASED: 2018
REVIEWED BY – JOHN ERIGO

Current members

• Biff Byford – vocal (1977–present); bass (1986)
• Paul Quinn – guitar (1977–present)
• Nigel Glockler – drums (1981–1987, 1988–1999, 2005–present)
• Nibbs Carter – bass; (1988–present)
• Doug Scarratt – guitar (1996–present)

www.saxon747.com/
https://www.facebook.com/saxon/

https://youtu.be/BXhXjKigrW0

Saxon was one of the first metal bands I got into that was, at the time, an “obscure” band. A strong contender for best NWOBHM band they’ve had a long and storied career. Saxon comes roaring into 2018 with their new album THUNDERBOLT and soon will be out on tour in the USA opening for the Metal Gods JUDAS PRIEST. So the THUNDERBOLT album find Saxon somewhere between old school and fresh metal. Their sound has transformed over the years, the band has gone through slight stylistic changes. For instance – in the beginning they called their sound “Boogie metal”, with song titles like “Bop Shoo-op”. After that they were more like a straight ahead metal band, they slightly detoured with the CRUSADER album, trying to break into the American Market. They continued along that way for a while until their one real disaster album DESTINY. They got back on track and in the 90’s and early 2000’s they sounded more European, almost like a power metal type of band. The last 2 albums have seen them divert back to their roots, both in sound & song titles.

THUNDERBOLT has some really great moments – The title track THUNDERBOLT has a very old school kind of feel to it, the riffs still sound fresh but remind you of the older Saxon albums. Same goes for SNIPER, SPEED MERCHANT, and ROADIE SONG. There is a very cool tip of the cap to MOTORHEAD on this album called THEY PLAYED ROCK N ROLL.If you’ve seen the promo video you know that SAXON is paying homage to Lemmy and the boys as they toured together in the early days and remained close with them over the years. Other tunes I enjoyed were A WIZARDS TALE, SONS OF ODIN(which sounds like it had huge influence from DIO’s HOLY DIVER song) – nice MANOWAR title! LOL! PREDATOR was another good tune but featured some weird growling under Biff’s vocals, sounded kind of strange. The only song that really didn’t connect with me was, and I know it was one of the bands favorites, NOSFERATU. Obviously about Vampires. The songs just seemed kind of plodding along, too slow. I am thinking they were going for some kind of “epic” tune here, but for me it fell short.

The musicianship, as always, is top notch on this album. Biff’s vocals are still strong and sounding quite excellent considering how long he’s been at it. This band doesn’t seem to age at all, Almost 40 years in and still producing quality metal albums and playing concerts year round. With the release of JUDAS PRIEST’s new album coming very soon, it looks like both bands will have some really strong, fresh songs they can possibly add to their set lists which will make for an excellent tour. I am amazed both bands are still going and still making extremely enjoyable music. The NWOBHM movement still lives on!!!