So, gearing up for SAXON & URIAH HEEP in Cleveland.. Not totally looking forward to the 4 hr drive, but 2 of my favorite bands on one bill!
While going through SAXON CDs for the car the last few days, I had these 2 on – 2 classic Saxon albums – something old and something new. Wheels Of Steel is the band’s 2nd album, from 1980 and boasted the hits “747 (Strangers In The Night)” and the title track, as well as the single “Suzie Hold On”, and heavy opener “Motorcycle Man”. The LP went top 10 in the UK and began a run of classic NWOBHM era Saxon albums from 1980-83 (or so). Love the album artwork, the band’s logo that is still used. A must-have Saxon album to start. Check out the 2009 remaster with 8 extra tracks!
And from 2009, Into The Labyrinth . What a killer opening track – “Battalions Of Steel” is, with those church bells and built up intro before the band comes roaring in. One of Saxon greatest and heaviest. This album is full of cool rockers like “Demon Sweeney Todd”, the anthem “Live To Rock”, and “Valley Of Kings”. Highly recommended!
SAXON have issued a new lyric video for the track “Witches Of Salem”. Taken from their latest album Hell, Fire And Damnation, the video appears as the band begins their US tour co-headlining with URIAH HEEP (tonight). Check out the song at the end, and see my previous post for dates as well!
“This is an American story, but the witch trials started in Scotland, spread into England and across the sea to the colonies in America. Those poor women in Salem,” explains Biff Byford“they weren’t ‘witches’ more than just unfortunate women really, blamed for everybody’s ailments… whether your horse died, or the milk went sour, they blamed women. Maybe because they were jealous of them, or maybe it was because some guy had made some advances and she’d told him to piss-off, so he’d declare that she was a witch. And once a person was declared a witch, I don’t think there was any way back from that; very few of them were found innocent.”
On the current US tour which sees Uriah Heep & Saxon co-headlining, Heep will have Adam Wakeman guesting on keyboards, Wakeman mentioned this in his Twitter feed a while back. Uriah Heep posted that “Due to family commitments Phil Lanzon will not be appearing on this run of dates and filling in on keyboards will be Adam Wakeman (Ozzy Osbourne/ Black Sabbath/ Deep Purple)….”
Adam Wakeman
Both bands will play 80 minute sets, and alternate every few shows of who’s on first. Saxon will be promoting their excellent latest album Hell, Fire, and Damnation, while Uriah Heep will finally get to perform a number of songs (4?) from last year’s awesome Chaos & Colour release. Following the Heep tour, Adam Wakeman will be performing shows with his band ‘Jazz Sabbath’s.
SAXON have put out a new video for the track “Madame Guillotine”, taken from Hell, Fire And Damnation. The song is the 3rd single from the new album, and was co-written by Biff Byford and new guitarist Brian Tatler (Diamond Head) and it’s penned about the infamous torturing device, best known for its use in the French Revolution between 1789 and 1799.
“Both this and the title track songs are written by me and Brian actually, and this is very ‘Saxon’, so much as I don’t think anybody else could pull that off,” comments Byford. “I sung it as if the guillotine is a person, that the actual guillotine has a bit of a conscience. I love the groove, it’s got a great groove!”
Saxon are currently touring in support of the new album, with a co-headlining tour of the US (with Uriah Heep), starting next month.
SAXON released Hell, Fire, And Damnation in January, the band’s 24th studio album (excluding their 2 recent collections of covers). if you haven’t heard the new album, it is one of the band’s best in the past few decades (well, their best since 1999’s Metalhead, for me). See my review elsewhere on this site. In this conversation, Biff discusses the band’s change in guitar players, the songs and artwork for Hell, Fire and Damnation, and the band’s upcoming US tour (co-headlining w/ Uriah Heep).
*Check out the links and tour dates below.
First of all, the new album if you can tell me a bit about the title where the what inspired the title and the title song obviously in that context. I posted a review the other day.
Yeah, the first song’s about the battle between good and evil, really, that’s been going on for 1000s of years. I suppose it’s based on the prophecy, you know like the Omen films, that type of thing. I suppose it was good to write a song about good and evil and just a lot of bands just write about devils and demons and things, or occult. And it’s a saying my dad used to use when he was upset – ‘hell, fire and damnation’. That’s where the title came from, the idea for the words, anyway.
You got Brian in the band now. Prior to, when Paul announced he was leaving did you have Brian in mind already, when that came up?
Paul’s been thinking about leaving for some time. I think when we were touring during that particular period, he was quite tired and not really into metal music anymore. So he just wanted to play blues music and relax a bit. So that’s what he wanted to do. So we asked Brian – Brian was the first guy we asked actually. And the thing about Brian, is apart from Metallica connection, you know, the songs that they recorded of his; He’s a bit sort of frustrated, writing great riffs and things and playing great guitar and not being able to play in front of a lot of people, so he jumped at the chance to join Saxon. He’s still in Diamond Head, but he’s really enjoying himself, you know, getting the sort of interest that he deserves.
Yeah, did that change kind of give you guys a bit of a spark with the new album, so I think it’s great album. It’s very consistent, the songs are really good.
Well he wrote the title track with me, we wrote that time together – “Hell, Fire and Damnation”, so he’s come in to the band and done some writing. So dynamically, we’ve changed a little bit, which I think is for the better really. The album sounds fantastic.
A lot of the songs you write are kind of history lessons or history topics. So I always find myself when I get a Saxon album I gotta go look up something that – ‘what is this moment he’s talking about or this event’?
Haha… A lot of people do Google, you know – if they don’t know what happened in 1066. Or the Salem witches, you can go on Google and Wikipedia it gives you a short story of what it’s all about. I think in that way it’s interesting you know. And some of the Maiden tracks are quite history based. I’m sure some people google and find out what the tale of the “Ancient Mariner” is, you know!?
What kind of inspires each topic that you come up with – is it reading or a book or movie..?
A lot of it’s documentaries and things you see on Netflix or something. I read articles and watch films and things, so I’m always looking for something to write about. I was doodling with a song called “Remember the Alamo” for this album, but it didn’t quite make it. So that might end up on the next album (haha); you never know!
You also had a change with the artwork on this album?
Again, it’s dark and light – good and evil. So I wanted to an album cover that basically mirrored what I was saying in the song really – the fight between good and evil. And I got my friend, the actor. Brian Blessed to do the intro for all sounds pretty precious metal to me. I mean, I do like it.
Now you got Peter Selye doing the artwork this time? That’s first person you’ve had somebody new for, I guess for quite a few years, I guess. We do usually use our other friend Paul Gregory who’s done a lot of albums since Crusader. But he wasn’t able to do this album. So I had an idea, you know, an idea of a cover, and we sent my ideas to different artists. And he (Peter) came back straight away with that concept of you know, the super angel and the shield in the middle of the battle. And it looked really great to me, you know,
How involved are you with each cover from album to album? Is it your ideas?
Yeah, a lot of them are based on my ideas, yeah, and where I think they should from. The album can do what he wants, but it all comes back from an idea I have. They’re not always great, and don’t always work, so we might have to move on to a different cover. but this one is pretty much how I wanted it to be really.
Well it’s a great cover
Looks great on a t-shirt!
And the title is very memorable…
And you can buy a box set with a patch in it, and put it on a jacket, and that’s pretty cool. I’m going to be wearing one of them on stage, I think.
If we can touch on some of the songs, because there’s a lot that stand out on this here for me – “Madame Guillotine”, “Fire And Steel”, “Pirates Of The Airwaves”… Can you tell me a bit about a few of the songs and if you’ve kind of decided or have an idea what you might put into the live show?
“Pirates Of The Airwaves” was based on the ’60s really. When I was a boy listening to music on a little transistor radio because the BBC the British government, wouldn’t allow people to listen to rock music, like The Rolling Stones in the 60s, so we used to listen in our in our bedrooms late at night, midnight, listening to these tracks coming through from these pirate stations. That’s what that song is about. You know, it’s just reminiscing from my youth, really.
“Fire And Steel” is basically it’s about a city in Yorkshire England called Sheffield, and that was a very behemoth city. It’s the place I used to go when I was a teenager to see all the bands. You know I saw David Bowie there, and I saw Uriah Heep, and Deep Purple – all the big bands used to come through this city called Sheffield, and I used to go so that’s what the song’s about really.
And obviously “There’s Something In Roswell”, I think a lot of people know what that’s about already.
Well, I’m a believer. I don’t know about you, but I think there’s something in Roswell. I think something happened there. Roswell was ground zero for UFO enthusiasts. Really.
Do you follow a lot of that stuff?
It’s interesting. I like conspiracy theories. Like something happens and then the government tells you something else. It’s interesting, isn’t it? I mean from Roswell millions of UFO sites and people talk about UFOs, Investigate UFOs, and it all started from Roswell, really.
“Kubla Khan And The Merchant of Venice”?
Again, that’s a bit of a history lesson really. You know Genghis Khan was a big warlord in Europe who conquered most of Europe and some of the Roman Empire. And one of his great grandsons was the Emperor of China, his name was Kubla Khan. And the first guy to go there and write about it was a guy called Marco Polo, who was from Venice. He discovered the Chinese used gunpowder, this fantastic pottery that they used to make – a great story really. I think that’s the most historic song on the album, but you can google it again if you want to find out what it’s about.
You guys are consistently putting out albums, like yearly – even when we were off during the pandemic you still managed to put out the two covers’ albums. What kind of drives you and how important is it to keep putting out new material when there’s a lot of bands at this stage who are just content to do one every five or six years or whatever?
We still have lots of things to prove. And we’re still always trying to write that perfect song on that perfect album. And we’re songwriters basically, well you know, I mean I look at myself as a songwriter not just a singer, so I’m very dedicated to make and produce new material. And then tour with it. We could obviously tour and just do the big hits from the ’80s, but we don’t really want to do that you know; we want to want to make music that’s relevant – you know people like it, like this album’s getting good reviews from around the world. It’s a good feeling you know; it’s good feeling that we can still write great songs – in my opinion that are just as good as the early songs.
Yeah, I like following bands who have something new because it’s easy to fall off if there’s nothing new for a long time right, so yourselves and well Magnum, Uriah Heep… bands have that still put out albums consistently every year Or few years that are well worth having.
I think especially in the metal genre like Saxon, Judas Priest, and Maiden – we put out albums because you know we like to tour on those albums and that’s what really gives us the juice you know that keeps us alive, keeps us feeling young, playing music that’s new. It’s a really great feeling.
You’ve got a tour coming up in the US with Uriah Heep. So a couple things – when you go out on the road for these long journeys, like you’d be out here for a couple of months. What do you guys do? You know, what’s your kind of your routine as far as do you go visit a lot of historic sites yourself and or is it kind of all business?
Well we drink a lot definitely! (haha) And we keep ourselves busy really. And then we don’t have many days off, so, if we have a day off in a cool place then we’ll go off and visit the area or go shopping or something, just to break the monotony of traveling every day. We’re pretty much a family, it’s like a gang on the road. There’s a lot of fun, a lot of joking about, you know, it’s like being out with your friends really, like being out with your mates.
You’re touring with Heep, and you’ve mentioned them before, I know I read you’d picked Demons And Wizards as one of your favorite albums. And you covered “Gypsy” on the last covers album. How far back do you go with them as far as seeing them the first time?
The first time I saw them, I mean, they’ve been going on quite a long time. I didn’t see them in the late ’60s, I must’ve seen them on their second album tour, I think…and I think they were out with Purple. I’d seen them in Sheffield actually. So it must’ve been very early ’70s. But I didn’t need them until much, much later on. Because they weren’t really on our touring circuit, if you know what I mean, in the ’80s. I think they stopped touring the UK in the ’80s and had a bit of a hit in America in the ’80s with one of their albums. (Ed: Abominog, w/Peter Goalby). I didn’t see that band, but I saw Uriah Heep with a guy called John Sloman. Yeah, so I do like Uriah Heep, and I do know them, but we’d see them in restaurants and airports and it’s only in the last 3 or 4 years that we started playing shows together.
Metalhead was kind of my rei-ntroduction to you guys because I know you’d been over here in the ’80s, but when Metalhead came out, that really got me back into you guys and I’ve kind of picked up from there and been following ever since.
A lot of people got in to us on Metalhead. It’s kind of a dark album. It’s a great album, actually, I think it’s a really underrated album. It now ended up in a lot of people’s like, you know, top 10 albums they play Saxon, so it’s getting the recognition, I think.
You did the King Crimson cover on the next album? Do you remember touring or sharing bill with a Canadian band named April Wine in 1980?
Yeah, we did some shows together. We did the Monsters Of Rock together, the very first big one in the UK. I remember watching them, they were a good band.
Yeah, because they had a bit of a radio hit with their cover of “21st Century Schizoid Man”? So, when you guys did “In The Court Of The Crimson King”, I thought that was a great connection there.
A lot of people do “21st Century Schizoid Man”, it’s such a hidden track, but I wanted to do something a bit more proggy, a bit more prog-rocky. which is why we used the other one.
What else do you have on the go as far as other projects you’d like to do or anything else you’re working on?
At the moment, we’re not really working on much. We only finished this album in October last year, so we’ve been working pretty hard on this album. No real plans yet, just to promote this album, tour this year and promote the album. We might do more videos, maybe I don’t know. Just to concentrate on the album. That’s the next thing.
I’m looking at the dates. And I don’t see any Canadian dates yet. So I’m hoping if there’s going to be dates added on, because there’s not really a lot of room in between all those shows that are listed.
We have some space after the summer to maybe come back and do some Canadian shows, and some West Coast; we’re not doing West Coast shows either. It would be a good plan to do Canada, then shoot over to Vancouver and then on the West Coast and maybe go into New Mexico. So there’s a few areas that we aren’t playing on this part of the tour, but it’s just part one, basically. So we’ll see what happens.
Over the past couple of decades SAXON has proved themselves as one those high ranking bands to emerge from the New Wave Of British Heavy Metal. Though never as big as Maiden was or is, Saxon have consistently put out solid albums, almost yearly, giving their fans exactly what they want and expect – classic British kick-ass metal, with no deviations. Having said all that I think Saxon’s Hell, Fire and Damnation is the band’s best in years! Not that anything prior to wasn’t good, but the songs here just roll off so well one after another, with lots of memorable rockers, the Saxon historical tales, and anthems. Love the production from Biff Byrford and Andy Sneap, and perhaps the addition of Diamond Head’s Brian Tatler (having taken over for the retired Paul Quinn) has sparked something special. From the title track to “Madame Guillotine”, the speedy “Fire and Steel” that kicks off with Nigel Glockear’s drum roll, and early favorites like “Kubla Khan and the Merchants of Venice” and album closer “Super Charger”. Looking forward to putting this on in the car and cranking it up, and hopefully catching the band on their upcoming tour. Love the cover-art by Peter Sallai!
SAXON has also released a brand new single/video for the track “There’s Something In Roswell”. The track is about the enigmatic events surrounding the 1947 crash of an assumed Army weather balloon in Roswell New Mexico, referred to as ‘The Roswell incident’.
“It’s such a great story. It’s been around for years and years, and it’s just what the song says: there must be something in Roswell because there’s too much hoorah about it still”, lead singer and founder-member Biff Byford explains. “I like the tune as well, I think it harks back to ‘80s Saxon musically, a really good bridge between the classic ‘Dallas 1 PM’ era and ‘Saxon 2023.’”
Hell, Fire & Chaos – The Best Of British Rock & Metal is the title of the upcoming United States tour by two British Legends in the Rock and Metal genre
URIAH HEEP and SAXON.
With almost 50 studio albums combined and numerous live records, selling multi-millions, this tour will truly be THE BEST OF BRITISH ROCK AND METAL!
The tour is a 100% co-headline with both bands playing equal set lengths, with some cities Uriah Heep closing and others Saxon.
SAXON were formed in 1979 and became leaders in the NWOBHM movement alongside bands such as Iron Maiden and Def Leppard and inspiration to the likes of Metallica, Pantera, etc. Touring to support their 24th studio album Hell, Fire & Damnation, released on January 19th 2024, the band have continued to be at the top of their game throughout the years. Headlining many of the major rock festivals annually in Europe as well as an extensive touring commitment around the world, their massive and loyal fan base continues to grow and the band don’t look as though they are slowing down at any point soon. Their setlist will consist of all the classic tracks such as Wheels Of Steel, 747 (Strangers in the Night), Strong Arm of the Law, Power and the Glory, Denim and Leather.
URIAH HEEP are currently into their 54th year and have never stopped! With a 25 studio albums catalog, the band are touring to support their 2023 release Chaos & Colour that has had rave reviews from both fans and media alike worldwide. As part of the “Big Four” in the 70’s, which also included Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath and Deep Purple, Uriah Heep were pioneers in the hard rock field and an inspiration to many major touring and recording Artists still to this day. The band continue to tour around the world with 63 countries under their belt over the years. Having sold over 40 million records, fans old and new continue to flock to shows and festival appearances to experience the classic hits such as Easy Livin’, Gypsy, Stealin’, Sweet Lorraine and July Morning.
The Tour will take in the following cities with dates as follows:
Tuesday April 23rd Fort Lauderdale, FL – The Parker
Wednesday April 24th Tampa, FL – Hard Rock Event Center
Thursday April 25th Orlando, FL – The Plaza Live
Sunday April 28th Louisville, KY – Mercury Ballroom
Tuesday April 30th Morgantown, WV – The Metropolitan Theatre
Wednesday May 1st Pittsburgh, PA – Roxian Theatre
Thursday May 2nd Jim Thorpe, PA – Penn’s Peak
Friday May 3rd Englewood, NJ – Bergen Performing Arts Center
Sunday May 5th Boston, MA – Citizens House of Blues
Tuesday May 7th Long Island, NY – Patchogue Theatre
Wednesday May 8th Glenside, PA – Keswick Theatre
Friday May 10th Peekskill, NY – Paramount Hudson Valley Arts
Saturday May 11th Cleveland, OH – TempleLive at the Cleveland Masonic
Sunday May 12th Elkhart, IN – Lerner Theatre
Monday May 13th Detroit, MI – St. Andrew’s Hall
Tuesday May 14th Grand Rapids, MI – GLC Live at 20 Monroe
Thursday May 16th Marietta, OH – People’s Bank Theatre
Friday May 17th Cincinnati, OH – Bogart’s
Saturday May 18th Joliet, IL – Rialto Square Theatre
Sunday May 19th St. Charles, IL – Arcada Theatre
Tuesday May 21st Nashville, IN – Brown County Music Center
Wednesday May 22nd Milwaukee, WI – Pabst Theater
Friday May 24th Springfield, MO – Gillioz Theatre
Saturday May 25th Wichita, KS – TempleLive at Scottish Rite Center
Wednesday May 29th Houston, TX – House Of Blues
Thursday May 30th San Antonio, TX – Tobin Center for the Performing Arts
Friday May 31st Dallas, TX – Glass Cactus
More Dates to be added!
Tickets are available via general on sale Friday January 12th through all usual ticket outlets.
VIP packages are also available consisting of a pre-show Meet & Greet with both bands together, Signed Photo of each band, Personal Photo Opportunities, Exclusive Merchandise Item from each band and a special VIP Tour Laminate.
British bands URIAH HEEP and SAXON will be co-headlining a US tour throughout April, May and June of 2024. (Dates to be announced in a few weeks). Heep who released their 25th studio album, Chaos & Colour, in January (this year) and Saxon have a new album set to be released January 19 titledHell, Fire And Damnation.
Earlier this year Saxon released their 2nd album of cover songs titled More Inspirations, which included their rendition of Heep’s “Gypsy”. Guitarist Paul Quinn retired from touring, and Brian Tatler (Diamond Head). Heep played shows to commemorate their 50th anniversary last year, and recently finished a tour of Brazil, but haven’t featured Chaos & Colour songs in their show as of yet, so presumably 2024’s performances will see some of these great tracks performed. Prior to the US , Saxon and Heep, as well as Judas Priest, tour as the European Metal Masters.
So, just an update on what I’ve gotten lately and what I am listening to and reading when time allows…
First, a pretty exciting 2 days with news of a new SAXON album yesterday – and a great new song (“Hell, Fire, and Damnation”, w/ new guitarist Brian Tatler, of Diamond Head), and then the same news and new single from another favorite British band – MAGNUM! So, i’ll be looking forward to both of these coming out in the new year! Oh, and really looking forward to the new Trapeze ‘Lost Tapes’ album (love the singles).
I’ve also got a few books lately, and I gotta confess – I am a slow reader! I tend to have good intentions of sitting down and finishing a book, but really I get a book I am excited about, read a few chapters then first few days (and I don’t start at the beginning!), then I get distracted by something else (maybe a new album?) and then put it down for who-knows how long. Kinda like a project around the house, I guess. Anyway, lately I’ve picked up the Geddy Lee book (read some of that), a novel by my friend Mike Shannon (w/ rock references) – started a bit of that. And today I got Robert Lawson’s book on The Guess Who – read a bit of that before I started writing this! Oh, and I picked up a couple of Alice Cooper comics recently (yet to open), and well, I have a bit of Richie Henman ‘s (April Wine) book to finish (sadly, I started this like 6 months ago and still haven’t got to the end, not for lack of caring, I just am not a regular reader in general). And there’s a few more books I am interested in, but I gotta get through a few that I have….
I’ve also got lots of new stuff (to review, etc..)… But lately been going through more of my Canadian rock albums, lately listening to the first few Harlequin albums (why isn’t the first one on CD yet?), picked up some Guess Who CDs a few weeks back, and have a few gaps in my GW album collection I need to fill, but last few days have been diggin’ the albums ‘Rockin‘ and ‘Artificial Paradise‘ (from ’73) . Also got a couple of Stampeders albums I haven’t checked out fully (Against The Grain and From The Fire). I’ve also got to check out a few albums that I downloaded by Canadian metal band Gatekeeper (from BC); their latest is called From Western Shores (check it out!).
Anyway, I’ve also slowly been picking away at cleaning up my music room (it’s been a disaster for some time with albums, CDs, and miscellaneous things not put back or that I haven’t found room for). I have things that need to ‘go’, and ultimately I’d like to have it clean and spacious enough that I can simply put in a small sitting set and enjoy it (a dream still).
When internationally-renowned actor Brian Blessed OBE delivers a proclamation for opening track, “The Prophecy”, expectations are automatically high for Saxon’s latest album. Have no fear and make no mistake, Saxon meet and exceed them on their 24th studio album, Hell, Fire And Damnation, set for release January 19th 2024 via Silver Lining Music. Biff Byford, lead singer and founder-member reminisces when asked about the title of the band’s brand new release, Hell, Fire And Damnation. “I’ve had that saying in my head since I was a small boy because my dad used to say it when he was upset,” Biff smiles. “He used to say, ‘Hell, fire, and damnation, what’s tha’ been doing now?!’ when I was ‘messing up his cabbage patch’ or carving things into the kitchen table. It was a very ‘Yorkshire’ saying back in the day.”The title track unleashed today is a superlative British Heavy Metal classic exploring the juxtaposition between good and evil. “There’s so much music out there about hell and the devil and the occult that I just thought it’s about time somebody wrote one about the battle just between good and evil!” explains Biff. “You can’t sing about the devil without singing about the good guy either, and the song basically says ‘make your choice’. We all have to make the choice, are we evil or are we good? The song’s about that fight. ”Listen To/Watch “Hell, Fire And Damnation”
Hell, Fire And Damnation is an album which sees Saxon investigate all areas of history and mystery amidst ten of their most confident and thunderously powerful songs yet. Biff delivers his richest vocals in years, Nigel Glockler and Nibbs Carter on drums and bass respectively lay down the rhythmic law with bombastic power, and the guitars of Doug Scarratt and Brian Tatler are fresh and fiery, a perfect complement to each other, carrying an overall energy and fury which will have fans salivating. Musically, Saxon bring it all to the table. There’s a furious tribute to actual heavy metal in the denim & leather coated super-sprint “Fire And Steel”, a wonderful nod to the NWOBHM’s birth in the electric mid-pace “Pirates Of The Airwaves”, but maybe the true treasure amidst the jewels is “There’s Something In Roswell”, with the sort of expansive groove and embrace which deserves arenas. Produced by Andy Sneap (Judas Priest, Exodus, Accept and Priest guitarist) and Biff Byford, with Sneap mixing and mastering, Hell, Fire And Damnation strides the perfect line between confident, current power, and gloriously irreverent flexing of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal muscle which Saxon co-created. “I think this album’s one of the best he’s done sound-wise, and he’s done a lot of albums” Biff declares. “It has a really raw, vibrant sound… if you compress the total time making this album, it was four weeks tops… you can hear everything brilliantly, nothing’s overcomplicated, nothing’s over compressed. The guitar sounds are fucking immense, they’re just great, raw guitar sounds. And we haven’t done a lot of overdubbing on there, it’s just playing. I really, really like it.”2024 promises to be a great year for Saxon, with the European tour alongside Judas Priest and Uriah Heep kicking-off in the UK in March, plus the arrival of the heavy metal masterpiece Hell, Fire And Damnation.“Getting these shows in March 2024 with Judas Priest and Uriah Heep meant it made sense to push and get the album made faster,” says Biff, “so, we got on with it in haste and pulled it out of the bag. It was tricky, but I think it’s safe to say we managed it well. ”Oh, it’s safe to say alright!
Outsider Rock 