Long-running English metal band Saxon will release “Hell, Fire and Damnation,” its 24th studio album on Jan. 19, 2024, via Silver Lining Music. Pre-orders in a variety of formats are available here.
“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,” frontman Biff Byford said. “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 new album’s title track is available now.
“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!” Byford said. “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.”
Andy Sneap (Judas Priest, Exodus, Accept and Priest guitarist) and Byford produced “Hell, Fire and Damnation,” with Sneap mixing and mastering.
“I think this album’s one of the best he’s done sound-wise, and he’s done a lot of albums,” Byford said. “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.”
“Hell, Fire and Damnation” track listing:
1. The Prophecy
2. Hell, Fire and Damnation
3. Madame Guillotine
4. Fire and Steel
5. There’s Something in Roswell
6. Kubla Khan and the Merchant of Venice
7. Pirates of the Airwaves
8. 1066
9. Witches of Salem
10. Super Charger
Saxon has a busy 2024 planned, with a European tour alongside Judas Priest and Uriah Heep kicking off in March in the U.K.
“Getting these shows in March 2024 with Judas Priest and Uriah Heep meant it made sense to push and get the album made faster,” Byford said, “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.”
Saxon tour dates:
11 March – OVO Hydro, Glasgow (UK)
13 March – First Direct Arena, Leeds (UK)
15 March – 3Arena, Dublin (IE)
17 March – BIC, Bournemouth (UK)
19 March – Resorts World Arena, Birmingham (UK)
21 March – OVO Arena Wembley, London (UK)
24 March – Festhalle, Frankfurt (DE)
25 March – Olympiahalle, München (DE)
26 March – Volksbank Messe, Balingen (DE)
27 March – Westfalenhalle, Dortmund (DE)
29 March – O2 Arena, Prague (CZ)
30 March – Tauron Arena, Kraków (PL)
1 April – Wiener Stadhalle, Vienna (AT)
2 April – Roxy, Ulm (DE)
3 April – St. Jakobshalle, Basel (CH)
5 April – Halle Tony Garnier, Lyon (FR)
6 April – Mediolanum Forum, Milan (IT)
8 April – Zénith, Paris (FR)
13 June – Sant Jordi Club, Barcelona (ES)
15 June – Navarra Arena, Pamplona (ES)
17 June – Palacio Vistalegre, Madrid (ES)
1 July – Barclays Arena, Hamburg (DE)
2 July – Max-Schmeling-Halle, Berlin (DE)
4 July – Arena Nürnberger, Nürnberg (DE)
8 July – Sap Arena, Mannheim (DE)
10 July – Messehalle, Dresden (DE)
For tickets and more information, visit www.saxon747.com.
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