"It's like being forced by Mary Beard, wielding a vicious riding crop, to watch never-ending episodes of The Time Tunnel": Saxon's Hell, Fire And Damnation

Nigel’s alive! Biff’s alive! Gordon’s alive! In recent times it seems Saxon have had almost as many medical emergencies as heavy metal insurgencies. Drummer Nigel Glockler survived a brain aneurysm and a canine attack; frontman Biff Byford suffered heart failure. So it’s fitting that Brian Blessed – who famously declared “Gordon’s alive!” in the Flash Gordon movie – should add his booming voice to The Prophecy, the opening track of Hell, Fire And Damnation.

Cthulhu-style grumblings and backwards satanic mumblings usher in the title track, and Saxon hit the ground running with a tempestuous tale of the never-ending battle between good and evil. The Barnsley brawlers get into their trademark stride – mighty, marauding, deceptively melodious – as easily as Biff shrugs his big shoulders into his big leather greatcoat. It’s a very fine start indeed. But it’s as good as it gets.

From the assassination of John F Kennedy to The Dambusters, much of Byford’s songwriting is inspired by historical events. Here his approach becomes wearisome. Take these five consecutive tracks.

There’s Something About Roswell concerns the renowned/rumoured alien spacecraft crash in New Mexico in 1947. Kubla Khan And The Merchant Of Venice deals with Marco Polo’s antics in the Mongol Empire. Pirates Of The Airwaves is about the birth of pirate radio (not, as the press release claims, the genesis of the NWOBHM). The Battle Of Hastings takes centre-stage on 1066 – but should the Biffster really be singing: ‘The Saxons were slain, the day the Conqueror came’? Witches Of Salem, complete with despairing witchy screams, concerns persecution of the above in the 17th century.

Enough. It’s exhausting. It’s like being forced by Mary Beard, wielding a vicious riding crop, to watch never-ending episodes of The Time Tunnel. No wonder my notebook reads: “ENOUGH HISTORY ALREADY!” There are just two simplistic Saxon stompers: the red-hot-and-heavy Fire And Steel, and Super Charger, complete with its Clarkson scream: ‘Adrenaline! Adrenaline and speed!’ There should, undoubtedly, be more.

Are Saxon missing the deft touch of guitarist Paul Quinn, who retired (ostensibly just from touring) earlier this year? With Diamond Head’s Brian Tatler joining Doug Scarratt on guitars, and with Andy Sneap at the production helm, the heavy metal army is firmly in command. Quinn once confided to this writer that one of his best-loved Saxon solos was inspired by Steely Dan’s Reelin’ In The Years. Those days, it seems, are history.

Hell, Fire And Damnation is out on January 19.