There are many different ways to celebrate a 25 years career.
Recording a live ? A difficult choice for Saxon considering they
have already released two lives The Eagles Has Landed I &
II (1982/1996).
A best of ? How could a song of 1979 compete in terms of sound and/or
production with a track recorded back in the 90's. Difficult again.
"So how we celebrate our 25 years guys ? What about re-recording
our best classical songs ? Yeah why not, but isn't it dangerous to 'play'
with our songs as Biff's vocal has quite changed and considering these
old songs are printed forever in the mind of our fans the way we recorded
them at that time (feeling, fashion, emotion, studio sound ...). I think
it would be a difficult, a very difficult task to reproduce exactly
our classics ... with the same intensity we did on the original one.
I see more chance to fail than to succeed". I suppose this is the
type of dialogue that took place inside the band. At the end, I think
this difficult challenge drives Biff and the band to re-record their
classics with today's technology (new studio, new sound and new production).
A very risky choice, believe me !
Saxon's fans (like me) would not accept a single note, a single
"new" vocal pitch here or there. What seems almost impossible
and very risky, turns to be a wonderful achievement. This is the ultimate
Heavy Metal Thunder album. Every classic is executed here at the perfection
timing, the prefect feeling, the "small touch" here or there
that make this particular classic a f*cking great song !
From Heavy Metal Thunder to Power & Glory, to Crusader,
Dallas 1Pm, Strong Arm Of The Law or the atomic Princess
Of The Night, this "best of" must be in your collection,
even though you have already all these classics since a long time. The
production is powerful, the sound so strong and the vocals of Biff makes
here all the difference :))
The second CD is less interesting as the official bootleg recorded
live in San Antonio badly contrast with the first CD : poor sound, poor
production. The only interesting thing (at least for me) is the video
track recorded at Wacken 2001 : Killing Ground. That was the
first song of the set-list, that was our last year camping adventure.
This is a wonderful souvenir, a wonderful feeling to see Biff and the
band "reproducing" what I saw with my eyes ... live. As the
second CD is in fact a "bonus CD", there is nothing to blame
on (2CDs for the price of 1).
If you still don't know this band - hang yourself man - jump on this
record NOW. And if you though these guys are too old, I highly suggest
you check Heavy Metal Thunder. The first CD - full of 13 classics
- is running here in my player since a month and the band ... plays
on.