As the still-spreading Covid-19 virus continues to wreak havoc worldwide, British heavy metal legends Saxon have elected to temporarily put their planned follow-up to 2018’s acclaimed Thunderbolt album on the shelf, and throw fans a curveball by releasing an album of cover songs.
Saxon’s evergreen vocalist Biff Byford announced the news of the project in a video message posted on social media on November 17.
“I wanna tell you about a project we’re getting really excited about,” Byford said. “We’re just finishing it; I’m just finishing the vocals off now. It’s gonna be a cover album.”
“Somebody had the idea of doing something a bit of fun, because our new Saxon album has been put back till next year,” he explained. “So, yeah, we're gonna call it Inspirations, and it’s a collection of songs that inspired us and influenced us to go down the rock and roll highway, looking for fame and fortune. So, yeah, there’s some big songs on there, there’s some surprises, some really difficult songs to play and to sing. But we like doing it."
“I just finished the last vocal tonight,” Byford revealed. “We did it the old way — old Marshall amps, old Marshall amps, real drums in a huge hallway in a big stately home that we used near York. So there's gonna be a video about that soon. Hopefully you're gonna be able to pre-order the album before release. And we're gonna drop a single soon, so keep your eyes open on social media for that.”
There is no firm news as yet as to when the band’s next ‘official’ studio album will be released. Saxon had completed 11 songs for the album, with Byford promising “it’s heavy.”
“I would say the direction is the same as Thunderbolt and Battering Ram [2015] [and] Sacrifice [2013],” the singer told The Metal Voice. “It's heavy and it’s quite British [-sounding]; we like to retain that.”
