Lionheart

SPV/SteaMHaMMer, 2004

On this, the best of Saxon’s late-period albums, they found a perfect balance between the old and the new. In the title and cover image of Lionheart were echoes of 1984’s Crusader; in the music, shades of vintage Saxon mixed with modern European power metal.

Saxon brought in a new drummer, Jörg Michael, for Lionheart, and his prowess was evident from the start, in the bludgeoning attack of Witchfinder General, the heaviest of this album’s many heavy songs. But the crowning glory of Lionheart is its title track, the sequel to Crusader and a true Saxon classic.