British metal stalwarts Saxon will release their 23rd studio album, Carpe Diem, on February 4 next year via Silver Lining Music. And to whet appetites for what lies ahead, Biff Byford’s band have shared the video for the album’s title track.
Explaining the meaning of the album title, Byford says, “In Latin it means ‘Seize the day’ and I think it’s a great thing to say. It’s what the Romans used to say to each other on a regular basis, apparently: never having met one, I wouldn’t know! But we’re gonna do the Seize the Day world tour, the album’s Carpe Diem, [and] this song’s called Carpe Diem (Seize the Day).
The follow-up to 2018’s acclaimed Thunderbolt album, Carpe Diem was produced by Andy Sneap (Judas Priest, Exodus) at Backstage Recording Studios in Derbyshire with Byford and Sneap mixing and mastering.
"We never make an album that we don’t expect to be fantastic,” says Byford, “because there are no laurels around here, and as a band, we’re always trying to do something a little bit new, a little bit daring. I love fast metal like Princess Of The Night and 20,000 Feet, and I try and bring that style of Saxon into the music now, but in a more modern style. We don’t sound like an old band on records because we’re not sitting back on our past success.”
“It’s been a difficult two years,” the singer continues, “because I had the heart attack back in September 2019, so things went a bit pear-shaped for the band. And then Covid hit two or three months later, but luckily, we started writing and recording this album before Covid. We did the drums in Germany and we did the guitars in various places. I was doing a lot of writing while I was in the hospital bed, and we spent quite a long time writing and arranging the ideas that we all had. I do think it’s a very intense album, and maybe some of that intensity comes from the frustration of not being able to do anything in the Covid period.”
The track listing for Carpe Diem is as follows:
01: Carpe Diem (Seize The Day)
02: Age Of Steam
03: The Pilgrim
04: Dambusters
05: Remember The Fallen
06: Spernova
07: Lady in Gray}
08: All For One
09: Black Is The Night
10. Living On The Limit.
