Review SAXON ‘More Inspirations’

Saxon are one of the pioneers of heavy metal and have shaped the genre like hardly any other band. Compared to some of the earlier colleagues Saxon still offer good to very good studio albums and also live the band still delivers.

Even in an iconic band like Saxon, however, the members have role models and/or artists who have inspired and influenced them musically. With ‘Inspirations’ the band paid attention to some of these role models and these days comes with ‘More Inspirations’ a kind of second part into the record stores.

If the first part could be explained with a lot of extra time during the pandemic, the question comes up, why now a second part? Of course it is a pleasure for the guys to play the old classics and thus to make a kind of musical time travel. Moreover, the song selection is excellent. Alice Cooper, Kiss, The Animals, Uriah Heep,… – songs of all these bands are covered on ‘More Inspirations’.

Sometimes, as in the case of Uriah Heep’s ‘Gypsy’ and especially Rainbow’s ‘Man on the Silver Mountain’, this works relatively well. Also ‘Detroit Rock City’ sounds pretty good in the new metal coat of paint and the same goes for Alice Cooper’s ‘From the Inside’.

With ‘The Faith Healer’ by The Sensational Alex Harvey Band, however, there is much less excitement. Even if Saxon try hard, the song doesn’t seem to fit to the band, even if it has influenced the members. The song is too closely linked to the original version and the unreached cover by The Bollock Brothers.

On ‘More Inspirations’, light and shadow alternate. As much as one likes the guys from Saxon to pay homage to their idols, the question of the sense of this release arises. ‘More Inspirations’ is easy to listen to, but will not play a role in Saxon’s impressive discography.