Metal legends Saxon have announced their overall twenty-third full-length effort, Carpe Diem, will be released on February 4th, 2022 via Silver Lining Music. The follow-up to 2021’s Inspirations was produced by Andy Sneap (Judas Priest, Exodus, Accept) at Backstage Recording Studios in Derbyshire.
Frontman Biff Byford comments:
“It all starts with the riff. If the riff speaks to me, then we’re on our way. It’s a very intense album, and that’s all down to the fact that the essence of a great metal song is the riff that starts it, and this album has loads of them.
In Latin, it means ‘seize the day’ and I think it’s a great thing to say. It’s what the Romans used to say to each other on a regular basis, apparently. Never having met one, I wouldn’t know. But we’re gonna do the ‘Seize The Day’ world tour, the album’s ‘Carpe Diem’, this song’s called ‘Carpe Diem (Seize The Day)’, and it’s such a powerful thing to say.
We want every album we make to go platinum. We never make an album that we don’t expect to be fantastic because there are no laurels around here, and as a band, we’re always trying to do something a little bit new, a little bit daring. I love fast metal like ‘Princess Of The Night’ and ‘20,000 Feet’, and I try and bring that style of SAXON into the music now, but in a more modern style. We don’t sound like an old band on records because we’re not sitting back on our past success, we’re always trying to make a great album.
It’s been a difficult two years,” offers Biff with considerable understatement, “because I had the heart attack back in September 2019, so things went a bit pear-shaped for the band. And then COVID hit two or three months later, but luckily, we started writing and recording this album before COVID. We did the drums in Germany and we did the guitars in various places. I was doing a lot of writing while I was in the hospital bed, and we spent quite a long time writing and arranging the ideas that we all had. I do think it’s a very intense album, and maybe some of that intensity comes from the frustration of not being able to do anything in the COVID period.”
To celebrate the album announcement, the group has shared a video for the title track “Carpe Diem (Seize The Day).”
Watch the clip below:
Track List:
01) Carpe Diem (Seize The Day)
02) Age Of Steam
03) The Pilgrimage
04) Dambusters
05) Remember The Fallen
06) Super Nova
07) Lady In Gray
08) All For One
09) Black Is The Night
10) Living On The Limit
