By Martin Popoff
Riding high from their memorable August Wacken gig, a seminal event at which the venerable NWOBHM band trotted out their eagle lighting rig much to the delight of the 30,000 metalheads in attendance, Saxon return with a new record called Killing Ground. Punctuating what is a string of vital, creative, rocked up Saxon assemblages, Killing Ground finds the band paying subtle homage to past glories.
"Well, Killing Ground is a more melodic Metalhead," ponders the ever gentlemanly Biff Byford. "It's a lot more melodic in its conception and its finish. It's just an accident, really. The guys came up with a few heavy riffs. It's still quite heavy and dark but I think I made a bit more of a conscious effort to explore the lighter part of our psyche (laughs). We explored our darker side on Metalhead and now we're back more to a more historic, life-generated thing. Lyrically, people in Europe are sort of saying it's more like Crusader or Strong Arm Of The Law, actually. Those are both of the albums that they quoted. They lose me, but... (laughs). But there must be some sense in that. But it's a bit more back to stronger hooks. I think the mixture is just about right on this album, really, the mixture of the more modern and the classic Saxon style."
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