SAXON-The Eagle Has Landed 40 [Live]

Militia Guard Music/Silver Lining Music

July 9, 2019 by Michel van de Moosdijk - More about our team

‘Every cloud has a silver lining’ is a known phrase. In their 40-year plus career Saxon has hardly had any clouds. Not that the first years were not tough trying to make ends meet and the band around charismatic leader and singer Peter ‘Biff’ Byford also had some weaker moments in their career but it is fair to say that the group had the wind in their sails for most of the time. And they can be very proud of that, being around for all this time and still making a musical difference is not something to sneeze at. And that is something that Mister Byford certainly does not do. The man lives and breathes metal and rock with his other band members of which guitarist Paul Quinn is the longest serving recruit. Quinn has been there by the side of Biff all this time. Surprisingly enough Paul Quinn earlier this year got involved in a blues rock band called The Cards and released a very tasty album but Saxon has without a shadow of a doubt first priority. This 3-CD live package has been personally compiled and selected by Biff and has 40 songs looking back and celebrating 4 decades of metal with a selection of all the classics but also a bunch of songs that maybe don’t get played that often anymore. Saxon has a lot of classics and has to play them live again and again and again because that is what the fans want to hear. So during a tour to promote a new album there is not so much room in the set to play songs of that particular new album. And there have been plenty of new albums the last twelve years or so, Saxon is a constantly producing metal factory. On this particular record Biff has selected songs that have been recorded between 2007 and 2018. And looking at them it is an ultimate summary of Saxon then and Saxon now. There are some surprising choices there like ,,The Letter’’, ,,State Of Grace’’, ,,Red Star Falling’’ and ,,Demon Sweeney Todd’’ as they are not the most famous songs but they represent a part of the Saxon history. There are obvious choices that just have to be included and you know them which tracks they are. Although they come from different years, gigs and cities it must be said that the recordings are of a constant quality. There are no gaps there in the total sound, it all sounds as tight as a drum with all the characteristics of this band in full exploit. Biffs presentation is as always immaculate, his voice doesn’t seem to be aging at all and Nibbs Carter [bass], Nigel Glockler [drums], Doug Scarratt [guitar] and Paul Quinn [guitar] together are the ultimate metal machine. I know there have been other live albums of Saxon in the past but this package captures their whole history in one go and leaves no [metal] stone unturned!