From: cg@cbnewsf.cb.att.com (charles.gavinelli)
Subject: Re: Saxon
Organization: AT&T
Distribution: usa
Date: Wed, 29 Jul 1992 19:37:46 GMT

In article <1992Jul26.231206.22973@news.columbia.edu>, pw15@cunixb.cc.columbia.edu (Philip  Wang) writes:
> In article <Bs0FA6.66I@undergrad.math.waterloo.edu> sedenome@cayley.waterloo.edu (Banger) writes:
> >In article <1992Jul26.010027.27271@news.columbia.edu> pw15@cunixb.cc.columbia.edu (Philip  Wang) writes:
> >>What do you people say about Saxon? I find them extremelly consistent in sound
> >I've heard they are like Maiden, but that's about it.  I've wanted to buy an
> >album of theirs to see for myself...any suggestions?
> 
> The only similarities between Saxon and Maiden are:
> 	1) quintet
> 	2) NWOBHM
> 	3) formed 1976
> 	4) one of the greatest bands in the history of heavy metal
> 
> (last one being my opinion)
> 
> They are sort of a cross between Maiden and Leppard, doing subject matter 
> within the realms of both bands and sometimes being more tasteful than both.

Saxon used to be one of my favorite bands. I first started following
them in 1981. Back then, they were good friends with Motorhead.
In later years, the two bands had a falling out which turned physical.
I saw them at the Palladium in New York when they opened up for
Triumph. I remember going to that show alone (1982?) as my friends
were not into "up and comming" bands.

I remember a rumor where they were going to do an in-store at Zig Zag records
on Brooklyn (as Maiden and Motorhead had in 1980-81). Saxon pulled out
and the reason was that Biff Byford didn't want to do it. 


> They do the stereotypical heavy metal "let's rock-n-roll" kind of songs, my
> favorite being "And The Bands Played On" (what should be the NWOBHM anthem).
> They do mushy songs, slow and fast. Of the fast ones, "Out Of Control" is my
> favorite, and for slow ones I can't decide between "Northern Lady" and "I Can't
> Wait Anymore." They do those "get up after you've fallen" type songs a lot.
> On their DESTINY album they leaned towards a bit of social consciousness, with
> "For Whom The Bell Tolls" and "Red Alert." They also do several songs about
> alien invasions, including "Lights In The Sky" and "Fire In The Sky" (they
> sound nothing like each other at all, despite the similarity in titles).

I stopped buying Saxon LPs after "Power and Glory". I feel that a reason
for their demise and the demise of *some* NWOBHM bands is the following:

Some of these bands were popular because they were the fastest and
heaviest bands in their time (quantitative reasons - "Speed", "Heaviness",
etc).  Then something called 1983 happened. Metallica's "Kill 'em All",
Anthrax's "Fistful of Metal" and, to some extent, Exciter's "Heavy Metal
Maniac" (predating KEA by 2 months). The NWOBHM bands who were popular
for "quantitative" reasons couldn't keep up. In looking back to when I
first started to follow metal seriously (1977/1978 or so), I was always
into the fastest and heaviest bands around. The NWOBHM helped full that
void (Raven, Saxon, Maiden to name a small few). Seeing Metallica
blow away Raven in Brooklyn told me that some NWOBHM bands might have
trouble.

> 
> Any Saxon album is representative of the band (although DESTINY is the only one
> I know of with guitar synths). I would suggest WHEELS OF STEEL (1980) mostly
> because "747," "Satnd Up And Be Counted," "Suzie Hold On," and "Motorcycle Man"
> are such great songs. My first album was ROCK 'N' ROLL GYPSIES, but get that on
> CD because it has two extra songs. I hear THE EAGLE HAS LANDED and STRONG ARM
> OF THE LAW are their best albums. DENIM & LEATHER is OK, but you would do 

"Strong arm of the Law" is my favorite.  "20,000 Feet", "Heavy Metal Thunder",
"Sixth form Girls", "To Hell and Back Again" are *great* songs.

"Wheels of Steel" is my second favorite "Street Fighting Gang", "Motorcycle
Gang", "See the Light Shining", "Machine Gun" - these were excellent
songs in their time and great songs today.

> better I think with ROCK THE NATIONS. SOLID BALL OF ROCK was I think much 
> better than any of the albums released by their still existing NWOBHM counter-
> parts in 1990.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


"...when your body's on fire
 about to expire
 we'll go to the threshold of pain"

					Saxon - "Heavy Metal Thunder"
Newsgroups: alt.rock-n-roll.metal.heavy