SAXON — Unleash the Beast (review)

SAXON — Unleash the Beast album cover Album · 1997 · Heavy Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
3/5 ·
ydewata
To be honest, I am fully aware that Saxon is one of those rock veteran that is still around in the music business today. But I honestly never heard of their music until recently I got their Unleash The Beast (1997) and Metalhead (1999). Oh, yeah! They rock! I was so shocked the first time I played Unleash The Beast. I sense the sound of NWoBHM here and there in their music. Opened with a one minute intro of “Gothic Dreams”, the album then kicking in with title-track “Unleash The Beast”, a surprisingly fast track. “Terminal Velocity” is a Judas Priest-ly guitar-driven track. This mid-tempo track is my instant favorite, “...adrenalin rush on a maximum high/thirty thousand feet to the end of the line/screaming down towards the world below..”.

These old school rockers also kicks ass with a dark tune “Circle of Light”, which is probably telling a story about someone whose life is approaching the end with “...floating there above your self/you watch the doctors try to save your life/will you live or will you die/your fate depends oupon the surgeons knife...”. Unfortunately, they fell weak with “The Thin Red Line”, a Def Leppard-ish track telling a story about war. But fortunately, the next track “Ministry of Fools” is rock n’ roll radio-friendly track. This song is pretty much cynical with its lyrical lines “...we listen to your promises they’re just a pack of lies/manoevering your followers to draw the battle lines...”. Another cynical lyrical is also well-presented on a mid-tempo track called “The Preacher” where “...come and stand among the chosen ones/let the preacher lay its hands on you/fire and brimstone send you straight to hell/gather round beneath the mission bell/let the preacher get your hand”.

“Bloodletter” is less-memorable but surely a nice 80s style fast track to listen to. You might want to skip it anyway. Just when you might start to get bored with that song (or you may just skip it), the next one, “Cut Out The Disease”, is a promising one. A dark and mid-tempo track with thick guitar sound, if you’re into it then you would like it. Probably, “Absent Friends” is the only ballad in this album. A mourning song about losing a dear friend “...to absent friends/this one’s for you/you went without warning/...just like the good ones/it was your turn to go”. Nice ballad, surely. This album is closed with a rocking track “All Hell Breaking Loose”, a party song that would be nice to play it live.

All in all, this is an average album in my opinion. However, it surely has several memorable tracks that you might not want to miss. I’d even say that this album might be much better if “The Thin Red Line” and “Bloodletter” were left out. Anyway, you can give it a shot yourself. Their era might be not in the 90s but they surely rock.
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