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Rare SAXON Live Recording Unearthed; Free Download Available

February 7, 2009

Vocalist Biff Byford of British heavy metal legends SAXON has issued the following update:

"I found a rare cassette tape last year in the bags of stuff we saved from the house fire [in early 2005, Biff's house in France was completely burnt down]; our first U.S. headline tour in a big concert hall in Norman, Oklahoma. We arrived at the gig to find a mobile outside. They said JOURNEY were playing the next two days and could they record us to set up the gear. We could have the tapes after, but unfortunately they must be lost. This is the mix that was given to me after the show on cassette.

"The first track ('Power And The Glory') is available for free download on our MySpace site Planet Saxon."

SAXON recently shot a video for the song "Battalions Of Steel". The track comes off the band's latest album, "Into The Labyrinth", which sold around 1,000 copies in the United States in its first week of release, according to Nielsen SoundScan. The CD debuted at No. 29 on the Top New Artist Albums (Heatseekers) chart, which lists the best-selling albums by new and developing artists, defined as those who have never appeared in the Top 100 of The Billboard 200.

"Into The Labyrinth" has registered the following first-week chart positions in Europe:

Austria: #53
Germany: #23 (Media Control)
Germany: #8 (Media Markt)
Sweden: #44
Switzerland: #61
UK: #119
UK: #6 (Rock)

The CD was recorded at the Twilight Hall in Krefeld, Germany, under the direction of Charlie Bauerfeind. SAXON laid down 13 new songs at BLIND GUARDIAN's studio, starting with monumental opener "Battalions Of Steel" through "Demon Sweeney Todd" and "Valley Of The Kings", which both cover historic events, to the final slide guitar blues track "Coming Home" (fans are already familiar with the electric version of this track from SAXON's "Killing Ground" album).

"Live To Rock", the latest video from SAXON, can be viewed below. The clip was helmed by Aestheticom's Bill Schacht, who has previously directed music videos for DIO, KING DIAMOND, AMON AMARTH, FATAL SMILE, LIBERTY X/REV RUN, ZAKK WYLDE and SISTER SIN, among others.

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