DVD 1
Well, this has turned out to be a pretty comprehensive DVD from the Heavy Metal legends Saxon.
The first DVD is mainly concentrated on the phenomenal headlining Wacken Open Air show from 2001, one of my all time favourite concerts for sure.
My one big problem with this DVD is that they have skipped the opening song
Killing Ground so that the concert starts off with
Motorcycle Man , which was the second song. There is no explanation of the reason for this and I'm left in shock. How can they skip something that important? Even the intro to the brilliant track is featured and suddenly the band is on stage kicking ass and performing
Motorcycle Man! I'm left wondering.
Now that's out of my system for now I will make a short commentary on the show.
First off the sound quality is astonishing, very clear and with both power and just the right amount of balance between the instruments and even the fans. The picture level is also of high standard, many camera angels are used and the flow is relaxed and fitting.
The track selection is very broad reaching with a small advantage to the older classic tracks. One of the biggest moments is a fantastic and very atmospheric version of
The Eagle Has Landed; the band had brought the big old iron eagle filled with lights on to the stage, and when it starts to lower itself towards the stage filled with shining beams combined with the slow intro of the song.well let me just leave you with the word magical.
Dogs Of War is always a great live track, extremely powerful and with wall of tightness in the rhythm section. The darker and very groovy
Cut Out The Decease is a surprising selection for a live track, but it gives the show a nice varied breather among many fast songs.
Conquistador has a lot of great guitar passages and the incorporated drum solo is probably the best I have ever heard, Fritz Randow is a pure genius behind the skins and this solo has everything you could possibly want.
A not that well working aspect, is that
Wheels Of Steel appears a bit long and
Strong Arm Of The Law a bit more standard compared to the rest of the songs, a couple of surprises instead would have made things more interesting. I would also have liked to hear at least one song from the Solid Ball Of Rock album instead of the title track, which in fact also is a cover song.
Still, this show glows from start to end and
Crusader live is something that created a very special feeling among the crowd, epic, melodic and majestic.
Princess Of The Night ranks among the best party songs in my book and the version here is simply stunning, the fans are in on it all the time and the band plays it in a fast and highly explosive style. These older songs surely come out a bit more powerful that on the records. The concert ends with the hymn
Denim And Leather, I love the way that the band and fans together give this magical song just the right atmosphere, celebrating the lovely phenomena called Heavy Metal.
Turning to the persons on stage, there is no doubt of the bands musical qualities, they know their stuff and they surely know how to deliver it. Biff is the natural focusing point, there is just something magical and very drawing about the presence of this man. He sings the songs with tons of power and apart from that he also is a perfect entertainer, lots of funny stories, including the "fucking pigeon" (the eagle). He also has a wonderful connection with the audience that has a great part in the concert.
The drums are played with an enormous level of power and the bass from Nibbs Carter is ultra tight, it's cool watching him running around like a madman head banging wildly through most of the show.
The guitars (both playing rhythm and lead) are handled by Paul Quinn who delivers a very precise and solid performance on the rhythm section, and Doug Scarratt who has a more experimental and wilder style of playing, especially in his great lead parts.
The first DVD also contains a 13 minute interview with Biff Byford. The questions are pretty alternative and all in all it gives some cool details off what it's all about being a musician in Saxon and how they work, their attitude towards their fans and so on.
The last thing on the first CD is an appreciating original discography, this is very good thing when considering all the bootleg CD's that have been released with Saxon. Here you can find out what is officially released, in what year and with cover and tracklisting, a band member list is the only thing missing out.
DVD 2
The second disc starts out with a pretty long home video part showing the life on the road, inclusive minor interesting clips of different songs played live in small arenas.
There are plenty of silly and very funny moments where the band members are acting like crazy lunatics, jumping around statues and dancing while making ugly faces, all very amusing.
Saxon On Tour ends with three songs from Esbjerg Festival 1995, classics all of them and powerfully played, especially the very intense version of
Princess Of The Night that rules big time
.
Another feature is eight Saxon videos spanning the years from 1980 to 2001. I wouldn't say that these videos are of any special high quality; some of them are in fact pretty comic at times and a bit overdone (
Nightmare). Especially the very very eighties look that shines through is something that cannot be unnoticed, this is not meant in a negative way and the word nostalgic also fits in this connection. Anyway it's interesting to see different passages in their history through these videos.
Unleash The Beast is a pretty cool video, low budget but fitting quite nicely anyway. What's also interesting is the behind footage of the making of this video, where you get a view into the making process of music videos.
Ironically the picture aspect to
Killing Ground is from the same Wacken 2001 show as on DVD 1, where the song is missing, the sound is taken from the album.
Different clips from the band's appearances on different TV occasions is another part of DVD 2. The short interviews are pretty exciting and the Breakfast With Biff part is also very funny. Here we get to see another more relaxed side of the band's singer.
The photo part of this disc is a bunch of pictures that in fact illuminates the bands history quite well, while the press feature is not that interesting, showing a lot of headlines of articles from the bands past.
Well to sum up I think that the real scoop with this DVD is the brilliant Wacken show that sadly misses the opening track, and the Saxon On The Road part that has a lot of interesting footage and funny moments. The interviews are also very good. The other parts of the DVD I will not be spending so much time with, but it's great that they have put a lot of material on it.
I have mostly positive words concerning this release; it's well structured and the music delivered is of very high standard.
Rating: 7.5/10Written by
Tommy Saturday, August 30, 2003
