was one of the early leaders of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal, along with
. The band was formed in Barnsley in 1977 by vocalist
. Originally calling themselves
. Like many young metal bands of the day,
found it difficult to land a record deal in post-punk England, but eventually signed with French-based Carrere Records. Though
's 1979 self-titled debut album was marred by a lightweight production job, the band built a strong following touring Britain as support group to
. The band capitalized on this exposure with their sophomore effort the following year.
featured a much heavier, metallic sound which finally did their songs justice. The album was immediately heralded as a NWOBHM classic by fans and critics alike and the band was apparently on their way.
They released two more fine albums,
Strong Arm of the Law and
Denim and Leather, over the next year while touring relentlessly across Britain, Europe, and the U.S. Even the loss of founding drummer
Pete Gill to
Motörhead (replaced by
Nigel Glockler) didn't slow their momentum, and a live album,
The Eagle Has Landed, capped their hot streak in 1982. Though they'd barely dented America,
Saxon's early success was only rivaled by
Iron Maiden, and the band seemed poised on the brink of world-wide success. Then a strange thing happened. A series of unfocused, lackluster albums (
Power & the Glory and
Crusader) stopped the band cold in its tracks. And when they attempted to follow the trend set by other British bands like
Whitesnake (who cracked the U.S. with a peroxide-fueled fashion makeover), the band's career went into an irreversible slide.
1985's
Innocence Is No Excuse featured great songs, but old fans balked at the slick production and new fans failed to take notice, prompting bassist and principal songwriter
Steve Dawson to quit the band. He was replaced by
Paul Johnson and
Saxon limped through the rest of the decade recording weak pop-metal albums in a desperate, but futile, attempt to connect with American fans while slowly corroding their European fan base. By the time they released their tenth studio album,
Solid Ball of Rock in 1990,
Saxon had been reduced to
Spinal Tap-like dinosaur status.
Having reached the lowest low, the members of
Saxon finally gave up their dreams of ever making any headway in America, dropped their pretenses, and returned to their British metal roots. This resulted in their strongest material in years: 1992's
Forever Free; 1995's excellent
Dogs of War (after which guitarist
Graham Oliver departed to re-form
Son of a Bitch with
Pete Gill and
Steve Dawson); 1997's
Unleash the Beast; 1999's
Metalhead; and 2001's
Killing Ground. The band even managed to land a new U.S. record deal with CMC International for the latter two discs, which also led to their first American tour in almost a decade.
Byford and
Quinn returned in 2004 with
Lionheart, a pure metal blast that echoed earlier classics like
Denim & Leather and
Power & the Glory, followed by the similarly themed
Inner Sanctum and
Into the Labyrinth in 2007 and 2009, respectively.
–
Eduardo Rivadavia, Rovi