Saxon have unleashed the video for “There’s Something In Roswell”, the second single from the band’s 24th studio album, Hell, Fire And Damnation, out this Friday, January 19, via Silver Lining Music.
Hell, Fire And Damnation sees the band investigate all areas of history and mystery amidst ten of their most confident and thunderously powerful songs and “There's Something In Roswell” is a true treasure amidst the jewels, with the sort of expansive groove and embrace which deserves arenas. 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 And Damnation is a superlative British heavy metal classic. 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” and the glorious frenetic assault of the title track “Hell, Fire And Damnation”.
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.
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, the arrival of the heavy metal masterpiece Hell, Fire And Damnation and the recently announced co-headline US tour with Uriah Heep titled “Hell, Fire & Chaos - The Best Of British Rock & Metal”.
“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.”
All Saxon tour dates and tickets can be found here.
Hell, Fire And Damnation will be available in a variety of formats and pre-orders can be placed here.
Hell, Fire And Damnation tracklisting:
"The Prophecy"
"Hell, Fire And Damnation"
"Madame Guillotine"
"Fire And Steel"
"There’s Something In Roswell"
"Kubla Khan And The Merchant Of Venice"
"Pirates Of The Airwaves"
"1066"
"Witches Of Salem"
"Super Charger"
"Hell, Fire And Damnation" video:
- Produced by Andy Sneap and Biff Byford
- Album mixed and mastered by Andy Sneap
- Vocals recorded by Seb Byford at Big Silver Barn, York, UK; Drums recorded by Jacky Lehmann at Lampes Posthotel Old Cinema Restaurant Der Krug (Germany); Guitars recorded at Big Silver Barn, York, UK
