The Paul Roma YouTube channel has uploaded front-row video of SAXON‘s entire May 8 concert at Keswick Theatre in Glenside, Pennsylvania during the band’s “Hell, Fire & Chaos – The Best Of British Rock And Metal” U.S. tour with URIAH HEEP. Check it out below.
SAXON‘s set list was as follows:
01. Hell, Fire And Damnation
02. Motorcycle Man
03. This Town Rocks
04. Sacrifice
05. Power And The Glory
06. There’s Something In Roswell
07. Heavy Metal Thunder
08. Madame Guillotine
09. Dallas 1 PM
10. Witches Of Salem
11. Crusader
12. 747 (Strangers In The Night)
13. Denim And Leather
14. Wheels Of Steel
Encore:
15. Ride Like The Wind (Christopher Cross cover)
16. And The Bands Played On
17. Princess Of The Night
SAXON‘s critically acclaimed 24th studio album, “Hell, Fire And Damnation”, came out on January 19 via Silver Lining Music.
“Hell, Fire And Damnation” is an album which sees SAXON investigate all areas of history and mystery amidst ten of their most confident and thunderously powerful songs yet.
On “Hell, Fire And Damnation”, singer Biff Byford delivers his richest vocals in years, Nigel Glockler and Nibbs Carter on drums and bass, respectively, lay down the rhythmic law with bombastic power, and the guitars of Doug Scarratt and Brian Tatler are fresh and fiery, a perfect complement to each other, carrying an overall energy and fury which will have fans salivating. Musically, SAXON bring it all to the table. There’s a furious tribute to actual heavy metal in the denim-and-leather-coated super-sprint “Fire And Steel”, a wonderful nod to the NWOBHM’s birth in the electric mid-pace “Pirates Of The Airwaves”, but maybe the true treasure amidst the jewels is “There’s Something In Roswell”, with the sort of expansive groove and embrace which deserves arenas.
Produced by Andy Sneap (JUDAS PRIEST, EXODUS, ACCEPT) and Byford, with Sneap mixing and mastering, “Hell, Fire And Damnation” strides the perfect line between confident, current power, and gloriously irreverent flexing of the New Wave Of British Heavy Metal muscle which SAXON co-created.
“I think this album’s one of the best he’s done sound-wise, and he’s done a lot of albums,” Biff declared. “It has a really raw, vibrant sound… if you compress the total time making this album, it was four weeks tops… you can hear everything brilliantly, nothing’s overcomplicated, nothing’s over compressed. The guitar sounds are fucking immense, they’re just great, raw guitar sounds. And we haven’t done a lot of overdubbing on there, it’s just playing. I really, really like it.”
Early last year, SAXON guitarist Paul Quinn announced that he was stepping back from touring with the band. As a result of his decision, SAXON canceled its April 2023 South American tour as well as the appearance at the Monsters Of Rock cruise. Quinn has since been replaced on the road by DIAMOND HEAD‘s Brian Tatler.
Brian has already joined fellow guitarist Doug Scarratt, drummer Nigel Glockler, bassist Tim “Nibbs” Carter and Byford for a number of shows in late 2023 and early 2024, but will continue to be a member of DIAMOND HEAD.
Byford and 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”.