Saxon – Into The Labyrinth (Steamhammer/SPV)
As one of the prominent players in the New Wave of British Heavy Metal, Saxon‘s thirty-year career has been marred by missteps, misguidance, and general malfeasance by whoever is claiming to lead them.
The band gained deserved attention with a handful of very good releases early on in their career, ending with the excellent Denim and Leather. Their track record was built on hard anthems that typically dealt with things like motorcycles, playing in a rock band, and the occasional song about a train. The band was not very easy on the eyes, their lead vocalist had a limited range, and their musicianship would not qualify as anything spectacular. But the fact that they began to make some inroads with increasing sales was admirable, and their everyman persona could serve as an inspiration to likeminded acts that had similar discouragements.