Battering Ram

Battering Ram

With Biff Byford singing as well as he ever has, Paul Quinn and Doug Scarratt making full use of the term â€˜shreddingâ€™ with their guitars and the lock-steady rhythm of Nibbs Carterâ€™s bass and Nigel Glocklerâ€™s drums, the future and the past crash together in an ear-scintillatingly engaging, raucous, melodic-yet-classically heavy ten songs collection which will instantly be hailed as a Saxon classic. The title track, with its delectable twin guitar assault heralding the albumâ€™s commencement, gives the listener an instant crack around the chops, whilst traditionalists will be delighted to hear such a perfect marriage of old, classic Saxon with the newer, fresher invective in such riff-fronted fare as â€œDestroyerâ€ and â€œStand Your Groundâ€, but there are still moments of space and exploration which fans will love. â€œThis oneâ€™s a natural progression from Sacrifice,â€ says Byford, â€œThereâ€™s a bit less rockâ€™nâ€™roll and a bit more â€˜heavyâ€™ on it. We wanted to keep focused on a style rather than moving around too much.â€ Produced by Andy Sneap (Megadeth, Testament, Exodus Accept) at his Backstage Recording Studios in rural Derbyshire, Saxon were able to hone in and whittle down any excess, finding the sonic space and balance to let Battering Ramâ€™s riffs and melodies get the necessary space to scream front and center, Sneap bringing a crispness to the sound which evokes memories of the early â€˜80s without for one moment sounding dated. â€œYes, Andy has been in charge of everything with this album, I keep on overview of it all, but heâ€™s done a great job and weâ€™re both pleased with the results. We have a great partnership.â€ Lyrically, Battering Ram covers a variety of social situations, from the screaming fans who rage at the gig barriers (â€œBattering Ramâ€) to the inequalities of taxation (â€œTax â€™Till You Dropâ€), as well as engaging in some good old fashioned myth (â€œThe Devilâ€™s Footprintâ€ - a 200 year old tale of people waking up in winter snowfall to see unexplained hoof prints which they followed, looking for an answer in vain). â€œWhen Iâ€™m writing lyrics I like to switch back and forth between complex things, reality and rockâ€™nâ€™roll,â€ says Byford, â€œI thought the whole folklore behind â€œThe Devilâ€™s Footprintâ€ made it great material for a metal song, being that itâ€™s both historic and mythical. â€œWith â€œQueen of Heartsâ€ I wanted to write something around Lewis Carrollâ€™s Alice In Wonderland, and itâ€™s about the chess game that happens in the story. I wanted it to have prog-feeling in the way of its ambiance and mood. Then you have songs like â€œDestroyerâ€ and â€œHard and Fastâ€ which are â€˜80s inspired songs with that modern slant on it. Iâ€™m a big fan of Marvel comics, and I wanted to write a song around the character Destroyer, and with â€œHard and Fastâ€ itâ€™s as the title suggests, about driving fast! I do like to tie the lyric into the song, so if itâ€™s going to be a song about driving fast, well, it has to be a fast, hard song!â€ There is also the albumâ€™s closing cut, haunting, gripping, melancholic tale of the First World War, â€œThe Kingdom of The Crossâ€, where a poem unfurls the feelings and horrors which comprised this most brutal of global conflicts. â€œThis year is the centenary of the end of the First World War. Nigel had a piece of music which he played on a synthesizer for a couple of years that I really liked. We had an actor (and singer), David Bower from the band Hell, read the poem and I sang the choruses. I didnâ€™t want it to be typical Saxon, so it is just keyboards, bass, me and Dave.â€ Wonderfully uncompromising, with Battering Ram Saxon have once again established their rightly-venerated credentials as Kings and vanguards of heavy metal music.

Country	USA
Artist	Saxon
Binding	Vinyl
Brand	SAXON
EAN	0825646033119
Label	UDR
Manufacturer	UDR
MPN	0825646033119
NumberOfDiscs	1
NumberOfItems	1
PartNumber	0825646033119
PublicationDate	2015
Publisher	UDR
ReleaseDate	2015-10-16
Studio	UDR

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