When internationally-renowned actor Brian Blessed OBE delivers a proclamation for opening track, The Prophecy expectations are automatically high for Saxon’s latest album. Have no fear and make no mistake, Saxon meet and exceed them on their 24th studio album, Hell, Fire And Damnation, set for release January 19th 2024 via Silver Lining Music.
Biff Byford, lead singer and founder-member reminisces when asked about the title of the band’s brand new release, Hell, Fire And Damnation.
“I’ve had that saying in my head since I was a small boy because my dad used to say it when he was upset,” Biff smiles. “He used to say, ‘Hell, fire, and damnation, what’s tha’ been doing now?!’ when I was ‘messing up his cabbage patch’ or carving things into the kitchen table. It was a very ‘Yorkshire’ saying back in the day.”
The title track unleashed today is a superlative British Heavy Metal classic exploring the juxtaposition between good and evil.
“There’s so much music out there about hell and the devil and the occult that I just thought it’s about time somebody wrote one about the battle just between good and evil.” explains Biff. “You can’t sing about the devil without singing about the good guy either, and the song basically says ‘make your choice’. We all have to make the choice, are we evil or are we good? The song’s about that fight.” Listen to the song, below.
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. Biff 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 & 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 Priest guitarist) and Biff 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 declares. “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.”
2024 promises to be a great year for Saxon, with the European tour alongside Judas Priest and Uriah Heep begining in the UK in March, plus the arrival of the heavy metal masterpiece Hell, Fire And Damnation.
“Getting these shows in March 2024 with Judas Priest and Uriah Heep meant it made sense to push and get the album made faster,” says Biff, “so, we got on with it in haste and pulled it out of the bag. It was tricky, but I think it’s safe to say we managed it well.”
Oh, it’s safe to say alright!
Hell, Fire And Damnation World Tour (Part 1):
11 March – OVO Hydro, Glasgow (UK)
13 March – First Direct Arena, Leeds (UK)
15 March – 3Arena, Dublin (IE)
17 March – BIC, Bournemouth (UK)
19 March – Resorts World Arena, Birmingham (UK)
21 March – OVO Arena Wembley, London (UK)
24 March – Festhalle, Frankfurt (DE)
25 March – Olympiahalle, München (DE)
26 March – Volksbank Messe, Balingen (DE)
27 March – Westfalenhalle, Dortmund (DE)
29 March – O2 Arena, Prague (CZ)
30 March – Tauron Arena, Kraków (PL)
1 April – Wiener Stadhalle, Vienna (AT)
2 April – Roxy, Ulm (DE)
3 April – St. Jakobshalle, Basel (CH)
5 April – Halle Tony Garnier, Lyon (FR)
6 April – Mediolanum Forum, Milan (IT)
8 April – Zénith, Paris (FR)
13 June – Sant Jordi Club, Barcelona (ES)
15 June – Navarra Arena, Pamplona (ES)
17 June – Palacio Vistalegre, Madrid (ES)
1 July – Barclays Arena, Hamburg (DE)
2 July – Max-Schmeling-Halle, Berlin (DE)
4 July – Arena Nürnberger, Nürnberg (DE)
8 July – Sap Arena, Mannheim (DE)
10 July – Messehalle, Dresden (DE)
More dates to be announced
For tickets and more information visit: www.saxon747.com.
Hell, Fire And Damnation will be available in a variety of formats and pre-orders can be placed here: SaxonHellFireAndDamnation.
Hell, Fire And Damnation Track Listing:
1. The Prophecy
2. Hell, Fire And Damnation
3. Madame Guillotine
4. Fire And Steel
5. There’s Something In Roswell
6. Kubla Khan And The Merchant Of Venice
7. Pirates Of The Airwaves
8. 1066
9. Witches Of Salem
10. Super Charger
Saxon are:
Biff Byford – Vocals
Nigel Glockler– Drums
Doug Scarratt – Guitar
Brian Tatler – Guitar
Nibbs Carter – Bass
Follow Saxon on:
facebook.com/SaxonOfficial
instagram.com/saxon.official
twitter.com/SaxonOfficial
youtube.com/PlanetSaxon
saxon747.com
4 Responses
The beginning reminds me of Metallica?
Hello again
No surprise that the beginning reminds you of the mighty Metallica.
Saxon was an early influence because of Lars Ulrich’s love of the NWOBHM; plus Brian Tatler, the guy on the Flying V in the video, is of course the guitarist and one of if not the founding member of…… Diamond Head – “Am I Evil” and all of that, which Metallica covered of course.
Seeing him in the band will now lead me to go and find out what the hell’s happened to Paul Quinn, the original Saxon guitarist who’s been with them since the very beginning in 1976. He and Biff were the only two original members left.
Song sounds good as well, by the way.
HI Dana, I agree with you…..this song’s beginning sounds, to me, like a slower tempo version of Metallica’s song “Creeping Death”,….a great song by a once great heavy metal band.
I thought this Saxon song was awesome! I’ll definitely get this new album when it is released! And with the great Brian Tatler of Diamond Head fame on guitar, it should be a scorcher of a new album! Biff Byford is in his 70s and still sounds great! Great NWOBHM band that should have been huge…..
DJH, last I read, Paul Quinn was playing with his newer band, The Cards, who are in the process of releasing a new album.
Man, these guys just keep bringing it! Impressive.