SAXON - Carpe Diem
Silver Lining Music
So where do I start with this one? OK first off bias alert because I'm an old SAXON fan. Now what I mean by that is I got into them back in the early 80's with albums like Wheels of Steel, Strong Arm of the Law, etc. But I'm not perfect because by the mid 80's I moved onto more extreme sounding stuff. Years later I checked out the SAXON albums I missed out on and was not a fan of those.
Fast forward to around 20 years ago and I was reading about a new album they had out. So I checked it out, it was Killing Ground from 2001, and it was damm good. In fact SAXON has had a huge resurgence in the 2000’s. So for years now I've been buying up all of the ones I missed out on plus the new ones that come out.
Which brings us to this their latest Carpe Diem. Look people, ever since 1999's Metal Head album SAXON has been on a creative roll which has never wavered. Well except for that covers album they put out last year. Every album has been perfect or near there. So again Carpe Diem is also another perfect album for these NWOBHM legends.
I mean Biff Byford's vocals still sound as great as they did in the fuckin 80's. OK maybe not that good but hey he's still got the stuff. Paul Quinn still adds plenty of killer solos. Doug Scarratt is a riff machine and a solo maniac. Long time drummer Nigel Glockler still keeps the thing organic sounding. And bassist Nibbs Carter keeps the rhythm sounding so well.
Of course let's not forget Andy Sneap. His production work is like Viagra to legacy bands. So yeah Carpe Diem is a great release. There's catchy powerful songs, a few slow tempo cuts, great riffs and melodies. I won't say it's better than some of their other releases from the past ten years. It just follows a pattern of greatness which SAXON has done now for a while.
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