SAXON TO RELEASE “BATTERING RAM” ON OCTOBER 16TH, VIDEO FOR THE TITLE TRACK POSTED ONLINE

Saxon will be releasing a new album in called, Battering Ram, on October 16th in North America through UDR Music. Watch a video for the title track below.

On Battering Ram — with Biff Byford singing as well as he ever has, Paul Quinn and Doug Scarratt making full use of the term “shredding” with their guitars and the lock-steady rhythm of Nibbs Carter’s bass and Nigel Glockler’s drums — the future and the past crash together in an ear-scintillatingly engaging, raucous, melodic-yet-classically heavy ten-song collection which will instantly be hailed as a Saxon classic. The title track, with its delectable twin guitar assault heralding the album’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 “Destroyer” and “Stand Your Ground”, but there are still moments of space and exploration which fans will love.

“This one’s a natural progression from Sacrifice,” says Byford, “There’s a bit less rock ‘n’ roll and a bit more ‘heavy’ on it. We wanted to keep focused on a style rather than moving around too much.”

Lyrically, Battering Ram covers a variety of social situations, like the screaming fans who rage at the gig barriers (Battering Ram) or engaging in some good old fashioned myth (“The Devil’s Footprint” — 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).

“When I’m writing lyrics I like to switch back and forth between complex things, reality and rock’n’roll,” says Byford, “I thought the whole folklore behind ‘The Devil’s Footprint’ made it great material for a metal song, being that it’s both historic and mythical.

“With Queen of Hearts, I wanted to write something around Lewis Carroll’s Alice In Wonderland, and it’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 Destroyer and Hard And Fast which are ’80s-inspired songs with that modern slant on it. I’m a big fan of Marvel comics, and I wanted to write a song around the character Destroyer, and with Hard and Fast, it’s, as the title suggests, about driving fast! I do like to tie the lyric into the song, so if it’s going to be a song about driving fast, well, it has to be a fast, hard song!”

There is also the album’s closing cut, haunting, gripping, melancholic tale of the First World War, The Kingdom Of The Cross, where a poem unfurls the feelings and horrors which comprised this most brutal of global conflicts. “This 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 didn’t want it to be typical SAXON, so it is just keyboards, bass, me and Dave.”

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

Coming soon, Battering Ram will be available for pre-order via Amazon and various formats will include CD in ecolbook, 180 gram vinyl, limited edition boxset (containing CD, vinyl and a bonus CD with the band performance of their Denim & Leather tour Saxon Over Sweden 2011, featuring 18 tracks).

Battering Ram track listing:

1. Battering Ram
2. The Devil’s Footprint
3. Queen Of Hearts
4. Destroyer
5. Hard And Fast
6. Eye Of The Storm
7. Stand Your Ground
8. Top Of The World
9. To The End
10. Kingdom Of The Cross

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