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Never mind the difficult second album - what about
the impossible eighteenth?!
Of course it helps when your band's been rocking
for the best part of thirty years, but it's time for
the old chestnut to be trotted out when singer Bill Byford declares this to be "the most powerful album we've ever recorded!"
That's not to dismiss Byford as an old chestnut,
mind... nor to dispute his point, for this is a record
that doesn't exactly dress itself in comfy slippers
and put its feet up in front of the fire. But The
Inner Sanctum, aside from its superbly pompous rock
title, explores the sort of sound Saxon fans will be
oh so familiar with - and, of course, love.
Chief culprit is the frankly laughable I've Got To
Rock (To Stay Alive), where Byford finds himself
adopting a husky Bryan Adams tone in the song's
bridge passage, before hauling himself from the
wreckage with a full-throated bellow. It's too late by
then though.
Red Star Falling, meanwhile, is the power ballad of
the record, flirting with fantasy in its subject
matter, the obsession with the line 'the beast is
slain' wearing a little thin. And if it wasn't slain
by the song, it was certainly beyond recovery by the
end of Doug Scarratt's mighty guitar solo!
No-one could possibly accuse them in lacking energy
though, from the moment Nigel Glockler's drums
gallop in to the semi-mysterious male chorus that
begins State Of Grace, or the impressive outburst of
folksy riffing that kicks off Need For Speed.
And throughout, the band give it their all, meaning
that while rock clich�s abound, they do so in a more
passionate way than you might expect. Lyrically
there's not much to be said though, and Going Nowhere
Fast sums it up as Byford sings "I look to the left of
me, I look to the right, there's nothing here around
me, no exit in sight".
You'll have gathered from this that there's nothing
new to report from planet Saxon. But then if you�re a
fan, you'd have the right to enquire why there should
be. Their established fan base have followed their
band right from the beginning, when they rode in on
the crest of the 'new wave' of British heavy metal, so
they don't need to take too much of a risk these days.
And with the potential of a post-Darkness
fallout still a possibility, there remains the chance
that a few stray souls may be captured.
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