Saxon – Hell, Fire And Damnation: Album Review

By Mike Ainscoe on 19th January 2024 • ( Leave a comment )

24th studio release from Saxon, stoking the hellfires of Heavy Metal.

Release Date: 19th January 2024

Label: Silver Lining Music

Format: CD / vinyl/ digital

Hell, fire and damnation! More than just an album title.

“I’ve had that saying in my head since I was a small boy because my dad used to say it when he was upset,” Saxon frontman Biff Byford clarifies. “He used to say, ‘Hell, fire, and damnation, what’s tha’ been doing now?!’ when I was messing up his cabbage patch or carving things into the kitchen table. It was a very ‘Yorkshire’ saying back in the day.” Probably not dissimilar to fellow Yorkshireman Richard Hawley’s ‘three ring circus’ description of a chaotic event or our very own Lancastrian alternative of ‘shit, shite and buggerations’

Meanwhile…the New Wave Of British Heavy Metal continues its relentless journey into middle age while losing none of its youthful exuberance. Denim and leather still guilty of bringing, and keeping, us all together. A reminder, should we need one that’s referenced in the furious barrage of Fire And Steel and in the “teenage boy underneath the covers” (!!) tale in Pirates Of The Airwaves. He’s obviously getting off more on the illicit thrill of Rock music on Radio Caroline (and several other namechecked Rock rebels) than anything less salubrious should we wonder.

And thinking these days, of Saxon as a Heavy Metal institution, you know you’ve made it when you can get the likes of Brian Blessed to deliver one of his rousing voiceovers to kick things off – a quick nod to Patrick McGoohan’s voice intro to Maiden’s The Prisoner – which is no doubt going to be a stirring concert intro coupled with the segue into the rampaging might of the title track.

Of course, the 2024 version of Saxon is a much more mature beast than the spandex faux pas days of the glorious Eighties. Leaner and with their finger on the pulse of the broader spectrum that passes for Heavy Metal. 1066 fits the standard bread and butter fare with another muscular burst of riffing power and while it may be typical of what they’ve done for decades, there’s still a thrill about a variation on the galloping riff and the prospect of banging your thread down the front, maybe even at the barrier, with your comrades. Again, with Maiden (and ‘666’) in mind), there’s something quite satisfying about numbers in a Metal song.

Witches Of Salem swings with a purposeful stride, allowing room for some squealing guitar parts and after a Sci Fi encounter in Roswell that gets the honour of a single release, what do they do for an encore? Super Charger seals the deal with another heads down Saxon charge.

Lyrically, there’s a strong sense of Biff Byford exploring both history and mystery, with Marie Antoinette (no sniggering at the “please don’t lose your head” line on Madame Guillotine), Kubla Khan, the Battle of Hastings, the Salem witch trials and the fight between good and evil on the title track all in an intriguing mix. Here’s to the next round of touring with Priest and Heep – wonder how many years int he business between them? – and maybe we’ll see you down the front.

Here’s the title track: