Ye Olde Metal: Saxon's Power & The Glory

The 2013 Martin Popoff short ebook about the making of the Saxon album, Power & The Glory.


New Wave Of British Heavy Metal pillars and lady-killers (!) Saxon were on the verge of parody after four records of rockscrabble, meat and potatoes biker rock. Maiden had clearly outstripped them as front edge of the form and indeed by '83, many previous NWOBHM hopefuls were dying a death. But then Power & The Glory screamed out of the Carrere Records release schedule and Saxon were all of a sudden as heavy as Savage and as drunkenly exciting as Grim Reaper. Come hear the tale of how that headbanged and heavenly state of affairs happened, how electricity was mainlined into this then-tiring band, and how Power & The Glory became the best Saxon album ever. Toward that end, Popoff—crafting a flagship addition to his Ye Olde Metal series of shorts—talks to four members of the band, namely bassist Steve Dawson, guitarist Paul Quinn, leader of the pack Biff Byford and, in the author's opinion, nuclear weapon on board this aircraft carrier of metal, new drummer Nigel Glockler.