Saxon - Into The Labyrinth

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Released: January 9th 2009

Label: Steamhammer (SPV)

Tracklist:

1. Battalions Of Steel (06:34)
2. Live To Rock (05:30)
3. Demon Sweeney Todd (03:51)
4. The Letter (00:42)
5. Valley Of The Kings (05:03)
6. Slow Lane Blues (04:08)
7. Crime Of Passion (04:04)
8. Premonition in D Minor (00:40)
9. Voice (04:35)
10. Protect Yourselves (03:56)
11. Hellcat (03:54)
12. Come Rock Of Ages (The Circle Is Complete) (03:52)
13. Coming Home (Bottleneck Version) (03:12)

Since 30 years, the Heavy Metal veterans from Saxon are constantly releasing high class albums, but without getting the deserved attention from the community (IMO). They have always been hiding in the shadow of Iron Maiden and Judas Priest, which is a pity because they are an amazing, energetic live band with tons of brilliant songs which can easily compete with their more famous competitors. The cause for this is certainly their change of style in the mid eighties, through which they became more pop orientated and lost a lot of fans instead of conquering the US market. But with "Solid Ball Of Rock" from 1990, they returned to their roots and since then they released some brilliant classical metal records such as "Unleash The Beast"(1997) and "Lionheart" (2004).

Now in 2009, they released their 19th record, "Into The Labyrinth". In this review I want to give you a little (personal) impression of what to expect from it.

The albums starts quiet atmospheric with monk chant and peal of bells. Then the epic opener "Battalions Of Steel" kicks off with a mighty riff and an unusual amount of keyboards. But once you attuned to it, it quickly becomes a favourite on the record. The second song, "Live To Rock" was also the first single. It`s a tradiotional feel-good-rocker, Saxon style. Not innovative at all, but it makes a hell lot of fun! "Demon Sweeney Todd", starts with a slow acoustic intro but then turns into an extremely fast metal monster. Highlight! If the whole album would continue like that, it could easily be one of Saxon`s best albums, but ufortunately it does not ...

"The Valley Of Kings" is the first disentchantment. It`s not a bad track, but I was absolutely shocked as I noticed that the verse melody mates to a 100% with the one from "If I Was You" from the 2007 record "The Inner Sanctum". So that`s a big demerit. Furthermore, the chorus is much too cheesy. "Slow Lane Blues" is really a personal taste question. It`s a slow, bluesy song which represents a strong contrast to the more epic songs. Anyway I like it a lot. But again not mindblowing at all. Then follows the weakest part of the album which, I have to say, ruines it. "Crime Of Passion" and "Protect Yourselves" are shockingl boring songs, without any exciting moment."Voice" is a quiet lame ballad, which always falls victim to my skip button. Fortunatley, the two last songs are again very strong. "Hellcat" is a very cool, aggressive uptempo rocker and "Come Rock Of Ages" is a melodic rocksong with a superb chorus. The last song is a bonus track and an acoustic version of the song "Coming Home" from the 2002 "Killing Ground" album. This is again a song which splits up the listeners. I think it`s very enjoyable.

In summary, "Into The Labyrinth" is a good metal album which simply needed more time (The album was written in 3 weeks). There are some very strong tracks on it but the second part of the album is too weak to call it a success. For me, it`s a little deception. But as I said, there are some great songs on it which make the album worth buying it. But I know that Saxon can better!

Awesome review, thank you. This album is damn good.