Track Listing

Disc 1:

1. Batallions Of Steel
2. Live To Rock
3. Demon Sweeney Todd
4. Letter
5. Valley Of The Kings
6. Slow Lane Blues
7. Crime Of Passion
8. Premonition In D Minor
9. Voice
10. Protect Yourselves
11. Hellcat
12. Come Rock Of Ages (The Circle Is Complete)
13. Coming Home

Disc 2:

1. Perceval
2. Let There Be Light
3. Interview

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #40467 in Music
• Released on: 2009-01-12
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: Limited Edition
• Dimensions: .26 pounds

CD Description
With a career spanning three decades, 'Into The Labyrinth' is the eighteenth studio album from British metallers Saxon.Recorded at the Twilight Hall in Krefeld, Germany with Charlie Bauerfiend (Helloween, Gamma Ray) at the helm, the albumsees Saxon continue with what they do best. Creating the perfect mix of powerful hard rock and melodic heavy metal, 'Into The Labyrinth' is another welcome addition to the Saxon back catalogue.

Customer Reviews

Nice CD shame about the DVD!
The CD has some classic Saxon moments. Battalions of Steel is a great opener (even if I did think Id bought a Within Temptation CD when the choir kicked in!) and Slow Lane Blues could almost be a sequel to Strong Arm Of The Law. Live to Rock & Valley Of The Kings are other great tracks but there are a few dodgy moments especially Hellcat. Its listed as a 14 track CD but 2 tracks are 40 seconds long and are really introductions to the songs that follow. Its still a strong Saxon album and fans would not be disappointed.

The booklet with the CD shows each member of the band seemingly realising their acting ambitions. Biff is Indiana Jones, Nigel Glockler is Biggles, Paul Quinn is a hitchhiker (Hasn't quite got the hand signal right) , Nibbs Carter seems to be stewing over his shopping list and only Doug Scarrett knows who Doug Scarrett is supposed to be!!

For the DVD content I can hear the sound of a barrel being scraped. "Perceval starring Biff Byford" is a 20 minute Italian mini movie with English subtitles. Biff is unrecognisable looking more like Merlin than King Arthur and is on screen for about 2 minutes total. Its funny to hear Italian spoken with a Yorkshire accent but everyone looks and sounds incredibly bored. Its all very sombre so having Saxons Never Surrender over the end credits seems totally out of place

The next item is a 36 minute German documentary about a lighting Engineer and its as exciting as it sounds. There are a couple of token short clips of the band live and its interesting to see how big a show they put on in Germany. Someone has also been playing games with the subtitles ("When are you gonad to be finished with that"). Its directed by someone called Christian Rapp who seems to want to be known as "Crap." Probably sums up the documentary to be honest.

The third and final item is a 15 minute interview with Biff which is audio only so you end up staring at the menu screen while listening to Biff talk through the CD track by Track. He also states that the next Saxon release will be a CD of old tracks given the acoustic or classical treatment. Cant really see that being a big hit.
I cant imagine many people playing this DVD more than once.

All in all it's a 4.5 CD but as a digipack it's a 3. Go for the cheaper CD only optio

Into the Labyrinth [Limited edition]
Just brilliant, it is good to hear Saxon back where they belong - at the top.

'Great For Existing Fans But Not Their Best'
'Into The Labyrinth' is a solid but unspectacular album. While it will almost certainly satisfy the bands long term fans, it is not strong enough to convert any 'unbelievers' and there are no truly outstanding songs.

The album sees Biff and the boys mixing the old with the new in places to. Opener 'Battalions Of Steel' and 'Valley Of The Kings' are more powermetal in the shape of Dragonforce or Nightwish than traditional Saxon but with some of the bands trademarks also included. The mixture works fairly well but neither song is really strong enough to really 'rock your socks off'. 'Live To Rock' meanwhile sounds as much like Saxon doing an AC/DC song as it does AC/DC doing a Saxon song! It's typical of a lot of the bands earlier more 'Heavy Metal' tracks, complete with predictable lyrics and repetitive chorus towards the end, but it is a good old fashioned rock n' roll number and they always go down well, don't they?

Sadly, there are a few very average songs on this album to. 'Hellcat' (probably the weakest track on show here) 'Slow Lane Blues' (lyrically VERY banal) 'Sweeney Todd' (the band work hard but the song lacks natural rhythum) and 'Voice' are all pretty mediocre offerings. 'Protect Yourself' and 'Come Rock Of Ages (The Circle Is Complete) do lift the standard but, as I have said before, never to the bands earlier dizzy heights ('Wheels Of Steel', 'Power And The Glory', 'Never Surrender' etc.

Final track 'Coming Home (Bottleneck Version)' is a more acoustic blues song. While it is a refreshing departure, Biff doesn't seem so at home singing in this way and the track is only a partial success. The musicianship on this album however IS top drawer and there are some classic era Saxon guitar solo's but all in all it's a 6 or 7 (if your a big fan) album.

As for the extra DVD...

It features a 20 minute film where Biff plays the part of 'King Arthur'. Not sure if this was Biff's acting debut or not but he does o.k. Problem with the film however is that it is all in a foreign language! While there are subtitles, it doesn't help your enjoyment and the film is a bit hard to follow in places (less so I suppose if you are up with the tale of King Arthur already). Another video follows (also in a foreign language) and there is also a sound only 'interview' (Actually just Biff chatting away at you - not being interviewed) with Biff in which he tells you about the making of the album etc.

Like the album, the DVD will probably be of interest to hardcore fans but it's not the kind of thing I will be watching a lot!

A definite 6 out of 10 all round.