Seizing The Day

With Saxon it’s always been about the riffs. During the band’s early years, in the early 80s, highly memorable guitar motifs cranked out by guitarists Paul Quinn and Graham Oliver provided the all-important first building blocks with which to construct tracks such as Wheels Of Steel, Strangers (747 Strangers In The Night), Princess Of The Night, And The Bands Played On and Denim And Leather.

In the mid-90s, riffs turned to rifts, and Oliver was replaced by Doug Scarratt (yes, it was that long ago). But the formula remained the same as the band stepped up and rediscovered their mojo.

Although the process began towards the end of the 90s, it was the noughties in which Saxon carved out a late-career purple patch. Across the albums Killing Ground (2001), Lionheart (2004) and, more recently, Sacrifice (2013), hummable hooks and riffs have always been king.

“It’s especially true of this album,” lead singer Biff Byford announces by way of introduction to , Saxon’s twelfth studio album (including last year’s covers collection ) with Scarratt,