It's safe to assume that when
Saxon
's original lineup was formed in Barnsley, England back in 1977, the last thing that singer
Biff Byford
and guitarist
Paul Quinn
were thinking about was a 31st anniversary. Metal bands come and go, and it is hard enough to keep a band together for two or three years -- let alone 31. But 2008, the year in which
recorded their early 2009 release,
Into the Labyrinth
, did, in fact, mark the band's 31st anniversary -- and the good news is that this 50-minute CD is quite faithful to the spirit of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal. Those who have been closely following
all these years know that their work has been wildly inconsistent at times; they showed tremendous promise in the beginning but didn't fare nearly as well when they tried to sound like a glossy Sunset Strip hair band in the mid- to late '80s. But the
Nirvana
/
Pearl Jam
/grunge upheaval of 1991-1993 booted hair bands off of
MTV
, and instead of either continuing with hair metal or attempting to go alternative,
returned to their NWOBHM roots. The result: a lot of mid- to late-'90s and 2000s recordings that weren't groundbreaking but definitely found
sounding revitalized.
fits that description; this disc doesn't pretend to point the veteran headbangers in any new directions, but
's 2008 lineup (
Byford
on lead vocals,
Quinn
and
Doug Scarratt
on guitar,
Nibbs Carter
on bass, and
Nigel Glockler
on drums) sound like they are having considerable fun whether they are providing anthemic power metal of the
Judas Priest
Iron Maiden
variety (
"Valley of the Kings,"
"Battalions of Steel"
) or going for more of an
AC/DC
-ish crunch (
"Live to Rock,"
"Slow Lane Blues"
). This album falls short of essential, but even so, fans of NWOBHM -- era favorites like
Strong Arm of the Law
(1980) and
Denim and Leather
(1981) will appreciate the NWOBHM leanings of the enjoyably consistent
. ~ Alex Henderson