Saxon To Deliver New Album ‘Sacrifice’ In March

With a storming new stomp in their boots and a renewed, lithe swagger to their legendary sound, Saxon will release Sacrifice, on 4th March 2013 through U D R Records. Taking a sharper, re-invigorated approach to the production, on this, their 20th album, Saxon have produced 10 of their strongest, heaviest and most inspired songs for many-a-year, and a more than worthy successor to their last album A Call To Arms.

“Less tricks, more power!” roars frontman and founding father Biff Byford, “my brief to the band was to be raw, be real and not be afraid to look back at the old classic material for inspiration.”

The album was recorded at LS Studios in Yorkshire and was produced by Byford with Andy Sneap mixing and engineering by Jacky Lehmann. It fairly bristles with muscular metallic intent, Paul Quinn’s and Doug Scarratt’s guitar work the best it’s ever been, while Biff’s vocals sound fresher and livelier. The songwriting too harks back to a classic era in Saxon’s history, with the likes of Warriors Of The Road, Wheels Of Terror and Stand Up And Fight evoking the halcyon days of yore with a contemporary twist, the classic Saxon sound absorbing the snarl, ferocity and attitude of contemporary bands (and fans) such as Megadeth, as evidenced by the crunching title cut Sacrifice.

“It’s certainly been done from a more early ’80s thrashier perspective” explains Biff, “and it’s not just guitars bashing away willy-nilly, they’ve got a fresh drive, purpose and perspective.”

Besides the new material, Saxon will also be adding some unique recordings of revisited classic to certain formats of the release, also produced by Byford and mastered by Andy Sneap, including an orchestrated version of Crusader and an acoustic version of Frozen Rainbow.

“From the songs to the production, I wanted to focus on the raw aspects which made us great in the first place” concludes Biff, “And living in that rawness, combined with some great classic Saxon-songwriting, has in my opinion made Saxon fresher than ever”.

IN STORES March 4th, 2013

FORMAT

. a standard jewel case CD – UDR 0152 CD . a limited edition deluxe digibook (including a bonus disc featuring the revisited classic tracks) – UDR 0150 CD . a vinyl LP picture disc – UDR 0153 LP . a Direct to Consumer (D2C) fan package available exclusively for online order from online retailers) – UDR 0156 D2C . a digital download plus one bonus song, ‘Luck Of The Draw’ (on iTunes exclusive) – UDR 0155

TRACK LISTING:

01 Procession 02 Sacrifice 03 Made In Belfast 04 Warriors Of The Road 05 Guardians Of The Tomb 06 Stand Up And Fight 07 Walking The Steel 08 Night Of The Wolf 09 Wheels Of Terror 10 Standing In A Queue

BONUS TRACK:

Luck Of The Draw (on iTunes only) 01 Crusader (Orchestrated version) 02 Just Let Me Rock (Re-recorded version) 03 Requiem (Acoustic version) 04 Frozen Rainbow (Acoustic version) 05 Forever Free (Re-recorded version)

UK TOUR DATES: April Thur 18th Leamington Spa Assembly Fri 19th Nottingham Rock City Sat 20th Newcastle O2 Academy Sun 21st Glasgow O2 ABC Tue 23rd Manchester HMV Ritz Wed 24th Leeds O2 Academy Fri 26th Wolverhampton Wulfrun Hall Sat 27th London* O2 Shepherds Bush Empire Sun 28th Bristol O2 Academy May Wed 1st Dublin Academy Fri 3rd Belfast Mandela Hall Sun 5th Oxford Academy Mon 6th Falmouth Princess Pavillion

Tickets for all venues are priced at £18.50 except for London* where they are £20.00 (all subject to booking fee). Tickets available at Kililive.com Tel: 0844 871 8803 and usual outlets. Doors for all venues open at 7pm.

Go to WWW.SAXON747.COM for more info