SAXON's BIFF BYFORD On Upcoming Album 'Battering Ram': 'It's A Bit More Focused'

Sally Steele of Vegas Rocks! Magazine conducted an interview with vocalist Biff Byford of British heavy metal legends SAXON on August 21 in Las Vegas, Nevada. You can now watch the chat below. A couple of excerpts follow (transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET).

On SAXON's upcoming album, "Battering Ram":

Biff: "It's a bit more metal, actually. Yeah, but there are some really melodic bits in there, like classic SAXON. But, I think, the riffs are very heavy — like 'Princess Of The Night' or 'Heavy Metal Thunder', really; they're heavy as well. So I think it's a bit more focused, this album. It's less of a mixture between hard rock and metal, if you know what I mean. It's more focused, and we like it."

On whether he would do anything differently in his career if he had to do it all over again:

Biff: "Do different? Yeah, I would have probably not signed as many stupid contracts. But that's about it, really."

On the most rewarding part of his career in the past forty years:

Biff: "I think when you're in a band and you're professional and touring the world, I think it's all pretty cool, really. There's some down times and up times, but, generally, if the band are all friends, then it's pretty cool. You know what I mean? Obviously, the '80s were really crazy times for us — we had big hits in the '80s. And the '90s were pretty good. We survived through the NIRVANA/PEARL JAM period, which was, basically… I think that was the lowest period of metal music. I think SAXON, [JUDAS] PRIEST [and IRON] MAIDEN were all a little bit forgotten during that grunge period. But, you know, we came through, we survived, and it was great."

"Battering Ram" will be released in North America on October 16 via UDR Music.

"Battering Ram" is available for pre-order now via iTunes, with "Battering Ram" as the instant grat track.