Search - Saxon :: Inner Sanctum

Saxon's second wind

Justin Gaines | Northern Virginia | 07/30/2007

(4 out of 5 stars)

"It's funny, but Saxon, despite being active for the better part of the last three decades seems to really have hit their stride in recent years. The band's glory days may be long behind them, and their lineup shattered, but with their last few albums (2001's Killing Ground, 2004's Lionheart, and now 2007's the Inner Sanctum), Saxon has reached a musical peak not seen since their benchmark New Wave of British Heavy Metal (NWOBHM) albums.



It's refreshing to see a veteran band that isn't content to rest on their laurels and deliver the same stale albums over and over again. Saxon is rocking with all the energy of a much younger band, and that energy is the driving force behind albums like the Inner Sanctum. This is a tight, professional album that recalls both the seminal NWOBHM movement as well as today's more refined power metal sound. Driving anthems like "Need for Speed" and "I've Got to Rock (To Stay Alive)" would not have been out of place on Wheels of Steel or Denim and Leather, and epic tracks "Red Star Falling" and "Attila the Hun" are worthy of NWOBHM peers Iron Maiden.



Anyone who may have written Saxon off in the 90's would do well to pay attention to what the band has been up to recently. Call it a metal revival, or maybe just the band's second wind. Whatever it is, the result is a string of fantastic metal albums that no classic metal fan should be without.



NOTE: There are a couple of different versions of the Inner Sanctum. The European version features a radio edit of the song "If I Was You" as a bonus track, while the US version comes with a bonus DVD that features outtakes, live material and other behind the scenes footage. Given its lower price tag, the US version is probably the way to go.

"

Another great Saxon album!

Y. Jossa | NJ | 06/05/2007

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Back in the mid-80s, Saxon, along with Iron Maiden and Def Leppard was supposed to become one of the biggest bands of the NWOBHM movement, and while Iron Maiden and Def Leppard achieved fame and fortune by going in completely opposite routes, Saxon chose to pander to the hair metal crowd and alienated most of their former fans along the way. Surprisingly the band turned their sound around and has been quietly releasing consistently great Metal albums since their return to form album "Unleash the Beast" in 1997.. that's 10 years.

Most new Metal bands don't last that long!

Their new album, Inner Sanctum pretty much follows the same style and sound of their previous four CDs, without any signs of watering down their heavy sound, slowing down or altering their to fit in with the new metalcore crowd.



Saxon sticks to the type of music they practically invented in the early 80s: Pure, Classic NWHOB Heavy Metal.



With the exception of the album opener, "State of Grace" the rest of songs in this album can't really be considered modern Saxon classics like "Travellers in Time" from Metalhead or "The Thin Red Line" from Unleash the Beast, but, nevertheless, the songwriting on this CD is far better than most of what passes as metal music these days and it is consistent enough to make this album an enjoyable release that will please any Saxon fan."