SAXON - Sacrifice

The atomic grandpas strike again.

The time of questions has passed. It matters not what vitamins they’re on, what they put in their teacup before they dip their biscuits or what exercise they got from their Pilates trainer. They’re just in top shape, and the last albums have made this quite obvious. Listening to Sacrifice you get the feeling they’ll never stop.

The recipe is the same: old-timer heavy metal played with youth. A comfortingly predictable intro creates a tension that grows until it is shredded by the decisive riffs of the first song. And you realize already that, even though the pace only picks up occasionally (Warriors of the Road, Guardians of the Tomb) this is a heavy album with heavy steps that leaves little room for comments. The same subjects that have been covered by Biff since he’s started his career: a bit of fantasy, history lessons, life lessons, anthems for the working class and a good joke to end with. All told with the same passion that makes you forget you’ve heard them before, and supported by an irresistible instrumental verve, a metallic monoliths without any hits, but without any crack either: no song stands out, they all do. Hard concrete from start to end.

Coming after the disappointing Call to Arms, Sacrifice is all the more precious. It’s hard to believe that we’ll ever hear another one like it. Let’s take it as it comes, with the same naturalness with which it was made. You’re only old if you feel old. Listening to Saxon in 2013, age becomes irrelevant.

Klawz Nota: 10