BIFF BYFORD: SAXON’s New Album To Arrive In February 2022

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SAXON frontman Biff Byford has revealed to TotalRock's DJ Force X that the band's new album is tentatively scheduled to be released in February 2022. The disc's first single will likely arrive at the end of this year. Last June, Biff told Metal Rules that the recording sessions for SAXON's follow-up to 2018's "Thunderbolt" were "coming along nicely. There is no pressure at the moment, to be honest, as I work better under pressure," he said. "We are recording our bits and pieces and have 11 songs that are done and ready to go. I did most of the writing, and I'm just waiting for the lockdown to be over so we can go to the studio and finish it off." In March 2020, Biff told The Metal Voice about the musical direction of the new SAXON material: "It's heavy. I would say the direction is the same as 'Thunderbolt' and 'Battering Ram' [2015] [and] 'Sacrifice' [2013]. It's heavy and it's quite British[-sounding]; we like to retain that. Me and [bassist] Nibbs [Carter] wrote most of the songs again." He continued: "What I do, I have a start time when I want the boys to start writing, and that's how we do albums. And Nibbs is just a fiend with it — he just writes so many ideas down; it's crazy. I'm getting ideas from all the boys, but predominantly most of them are from Nibbs. "So, yeah, it's heavy," he added. "There's some great guitar playing on it from the boys. And Nigel's [Glockler] drumming is up there with much younger drummers, if you know what I mean — he's pushing himself very hard with it… Andy Sneap is producing it. So we'll see how it goes." SAXON will release a covers album, "Inspirations", on March 19 via Silver Lining Music. The 11-track effort contains some of the classic rock songs that influenced Byford and the rest of the band. Byford and guitarist Paul Quinn are the sole remaining original members in SAXON's current lineup. Originally from South Yorkshire, England, SAXON has gone on to sell about 23 million albums and has produced such classic songs as "Denim And Leather", "Princess Of The Night", "Wheels Of Steel" and "Power And Glory".