Heavy New Year headbangers! We’re back! Did you miss us? Good, because we missed you too. Usually January sees us milling about, still recovering from that post-holiday hangover and struggling to find any new music to review. That is anything but the case this month. In fact, there’s so many thrilling new releases on the horizon that I’m practically overwhelmed. The coming weeks will see us tackle the latest outings from bands both old and new. Who better to start the journey that is 2024 off with than NWOBHM gods, Saxon?
To say Saxon has been prolific these past few years would be an understatement. COVID didn’t stop these veterans from releasing two cover albums and the absolutely brilliant Carpe Diem, the latter of which has been on constant rotation since its early 2022 release. Fast forward two years and a major personnel change later (more on that in a bit) and the band plays on. Hell, Fire and Damnation is the 26th studio album from Saxon, and like nearly every other Saxon album before it (or at least of the past 25 or so years), it is an invigorating clinic in English metal mastery.
It is also the first Saxon album to feature new guitarist Brian Tatler, who replaced founding axe-slinger Paul Quinn last year after his retirement from the band. Although initially serving as a live member, Tatler quickly found himself participating in a studio capacity as well, hence adding an unavoidable Diamond Head edge to the riffs and solos that make up this album. Overall, I couldn’t think of a better man for the job. Tatler holds the wisdom and acuity of an elder statesmen, better grasping the Saxon sound than say a hotshot twenty-something shredder.
Lyrically, Biff Byford outdid himself with this one. We’re treated to a broad field of topics, ranging from the Battles of Hastings (“1066”) and the Salem witch trials (“Witches of Salem”) to Marie Antoinette (“Madame Guillotine”) and extraterrestrial beings (“There’s Something in Roswell”). If Byford was my history teacher, I probably would’ve paid more attention in high school! All of this, of course, is set to a soundtrack of pure, unrelenting, old school metal. Sure, there are some high speed outbursts (“Fire and Steel”, the title track) and shades of doom and power, but at the end of the day, Hell, Fire and Damnation is undeniably Saxon: A band continuing to find ways to expand upon the NWOBHM sound 45 years on.
As the album closes with the anthemic ferocity of “Super Charger”, one can’t help but be in awe at the brilliance on display. Naysayers be damned; Saxon still boasts all the power and the glory that made them a staple of denim jackets and record collection in the halcyon days of the NWOBHM. While that era may be nothing more than a relic of yesteryear in 2024, a window of time to be observed by the likes of myself and other self-proclaimed metal historians, its spirit lives on in the riffs, melodies, and choruses of the mighty Saxon.
10 out of 10
Label: Silver Lining Music
Genre: Heavy Metal
For fans of: Judas Priest, Accept, Diamond Head