SAXON Has 11 New Songs That Are 'Done And Ready To Go'

SAXON frontman Biff Byford spoke to Metal Rules about the progress of the recording sessions for the band's follow-up to 2018's "Thunderbolt" album. He said: "It's coming along nicely. There is no pressure at the moment, to be honest, as I work better under pressure. We are recording our bits and pieces and have 11 songs that are done and ready to go. I did most of the writing, and I'm just waiting for the lockdown to be over so we can go to the studio and finish it off."

This past March, Biff told The Metal Voice about the musical direction of the new SAXON material: "It's heavy. I would say the direction is the same as 'Thunderbolt' and 'Battering Ram' [2015] [and] 'Sacrifice' [2013]. It's heavy and it's quite British[-sounding]; we like to retain that. Me and [bassist] Nibbs [Carter] wrote most of the songs again."

He continued: "What I do, I have a start time when I want the boys to start writing, and that's how we do albums. And Nibbs is just a fiend with it — he just writes so many ideas down; it's crazy. I'm getting ideas from all the boys, but predominantly most of them are from Nibbs.

"So, yeah, it's heavy," he added. "There's some great guitar playing on it from the boys. And Nigel's [Glockler] drumming is up there with much younger drummers, if you know what I mean — he's pushing himself very hard with it… Andy Sneap is producing it. So we'll see how it goes."

Byford and guitarist Paul Quinn are the sole remaining original members in SAXON's current lineup.

Originally from South Yorkshire, England, SAXON has gone on to sell about 23 million albums and has produced such classic songs as "Denim And Leather", "Princess Of The Night", "Wheels Of Steel" and "Power And Glory".