Customer Reviews

Collection of Metal

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I'M SICK OF ALL THE BAD REVIEWS OF SAXON. THEY WERE

AND ARE ONE OF THE GREATEST ROCK BANDS. I DON'T CARE

WHAT YOU WANT TO CALL THEM "METAL" OR WHATEVER. AT THE

TIME THEY CAME OUT ROCK MUSIC WAS HORRIBLE AND NOW ONCE

AGAIN IT STINKS! I'D STILL RATHER LISTEN TO THIS THAN THE

GARBAGE THAT MTV AND RADIO IS PLAYING! I'M GLAD SAXON AND

OTHER BANDS LIKE UFO, Y&T, WHITESNAKE,MOTORHEAD, KISS ETC.

ARE STILL AROUND AND SOUNDING BETTER THAN EVER. TRY UFO NEW

ALBUM IT'S A KILLER AND THE BEST ROCK ALBUM OF THE YEAR!

SO STOP YOUR WHINING AND LISTEN TO SOME REAL ROCK N ROLL!

This CD show us the quality of Saxon, The songwriting and playing is excellent from beginning to end. The sound is very hard, some aggressive and highly powerful. Also the cover "Ride like the wind" gives the song a new power and doesn't seems the original, this version is much better. This is a "must have it" album for anyone that is searching for good heavy metal, the ballads are excellent too.Just take a look at the material and you'll be sorprised. Have a nice day.

SAXON was never a really big, big band, but without any doubt they left their mark in hard-rock / metal. They survived extinction along with Iron Maiden and Def Leppard. But I'd like to know who did the song selection for this compilation! HTis is absolutly not he best of Saxon ! The great songs from SAXON were written until the the album "CRUSADER". AFter that, they turned radio friendly and almost finished ! The songs in this selection (in their majority) has only their "radio phase" portrayed ! For old SAXON fans like myself, it's garbage.

I can't believe that this best of compilation doesn't have killer tunes like Wheels of Steel, Strong Arm of the Law, Princess of the Night and Power and the Glory, instead they decided to put the mellower songs on this CD and I thought that they're remake of Christopher Cross's Ride Like the Wind was mediocre, Saxon is supposed to be a fast hard rocking metal band. not just a radio friendly rock band, but the positive side of this CD is that it has my favorite song by Saxon called Denim and Leather, I wish that this CD would contain hits from 1979-83 but oh well, if you love Saxon, I would recommend Wheels of Steel or Denim and Leather as your first pick.

A collectioon of metal did not disappoint, the only way I could improve this disc would be to add Crusader, Dallas 1 pm or Wheels of Steel. Well worth the money.

Get REAL folks. Saxon was a great band of the era. Denim & leather is still one of my favorites.Strong Arm of the Law would be another.I agree that the song selection isn't what I would prefer,or you,or maybe even You,but someone musta liked them better than us,(songs).
As far as Black Sabbath & Saxon,that's like apples and oranges ,isn't it? A better comparison would be to Y & T,Accept, Quiet Riot,their contemperaries. I think they measure up.
And,like most the bands of that era ,their material,not their abilities brought them down.Another 80's Metal Act who couldn't make the 90's transition.Talent wasn't lacking. AC/DC, Judas Preist, Motorhead, they all lived to fight another day.
All Saxon needs to do is go back to the type of music that got em paid.And it was GREAT !! Jerome Owens

That Saxon have a place in heavy metal folklore is undeniable. That they were instrumental members of the NWOBHM is beyond contestation. But what is also beyond doubt is that despite all the albums, live sets, tributes and this compilation is that Saxon were second tier for almost their entire history and this reduced to third tier for much of their existence.

This collection of metal musings does much to explain their underachieving statuse and also why they will always have their footnote in metals annals. Indeed in 'the book of heavy metal' (to quote Swedish band Dream Evil) it's hard to deny a place to such tracks as 747 Strangers in the Night and Motorcycle Man. The former is a superb rock song and the latter is an excellent rocking tune full of love of many a metal cliche. And both are to be found on this compilation.

One aspect of this release I liked was the liner notes Mark Crampton put together which are highly readable. A slight problem for me is the fact that the numbers aren't lined up in chronological order. My personal preference is for this to be done with best of collections to help newcomers and casual fans trace a bands development. Also just telling the punter the year of a songs release is a potential bugbear - they would of been better off also putting down the name of the album the track came from.

Where the real issues with this release lie however are the, well to be frank the simple fact is that if this is their best 16 tracks it shows why they didn't quite nail it. Everybody Up works fine in a second tier kinda way and if you were 15 years old when it came out then Denim and Leather is probably a great memory though weirdly it's themes and musical signature always remind me of the early Running Wild track Chains and Leather. Also a great memory if you were there would be And the Bands Played On which was is forever linked to the Monsters of Rock series of festivals held at Castle Donnington (now the Download festival). But much of the rest sounds of a standard suitable for filler tunes from Def Leppards first two perhaps, or Raven or any of a bunch of other NWOBHM acts that nearly made it. It's all OK but not what your hankering for. Mind you this compilation may be doing Saxon a disservice in that tunes here may not truly represent their best. I have a gut feeling that buying the studio albums Strong Arm of the Law and/or Denim and Leather may actually get you a stronger album. Now I'm no Saxon devotee but even I've heard the tune Wheels of Steel, a right stomper of a tune but it's not included here, even though Motorcycle Man and 747 Strangers.... is here - so it's not absent due to a licencing problem!

Anyway enough of my blather. The deal here is that this seems like a good taster for the band and really will help you make up your mid about whether or not to explore further. But it's maybe not their best 16 tracks. And also was out prior to later efforts like Lionheart and Inner Sanctum (both inevitably loved by Classic Rock magazine - the very inevitability of such approval calling into question how much store to put by it). Much as it may sound otherwise I liked this album. But don't think it really does the band any favours and left me feeling that their overall 2nd division status was probably their natural environs.

In reply to the review "Sally Metal", ishould say that this album is not really representative of the majority of Saxon's material.Most of the songs are from the "pop rock" era of Saxon ,which is unpopular with most fans.This album is clearly geared towards the American market. Saxon at their best could rival Sabbath.

I was looking forward to this CD, but when I got it I found that Broken Heroes is a live version and not a studio version as listed on the release. I believe that I am entitled to my full purchase price back, but good luck getting that out of this site.

Everything else on the CD is good, and this should've been a good way for SAXON fans to get material off those CDs that were not really up to snuff but had a few good singles on them.

What is Scott Smith smoking? Saxon- bubble gum metal? I agree with the reviewer who said that most of the songs are from the "pop-rock" era of Saxon. I should also point out that NO METAL BAND EVER HAS WRITTEN ONLY HARD EDGED METAL SONGS. Even Metallica and Motorhead wrote some fairly "mellow" songs.Def Leppard are a Bubble gum "metal" band.By the way , Black Sabbath's lead singer was called Ozzy.