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Saxon - Dogs of War Audio CD

A fair review of the Saxon "Dogs of War" Audio CD. Please note that the below review is the views of the authors, and authors only. You can get a complete list of all Saxon reviews here, or go back to the Saxon tabs.

Saxon Band: Saxon
Title: Dogs of War
Rating:
Release Date: 2006-02-21
Media: Audio CD

Tracks: 1: Dogs Of War 2: Burning Wheels 3: Don�t Worry 4: Big Twin Rolling (Coming Home) 5: Hold On 6: The Great White Buffalo 7: Demolition Alley 8: Walking Through Tokyo 9: Give It All Away 10: Yesterday�s Gone 11: The Great White Buffalo (bonus track - live) 12: Denim & Leather (bonus track - live)

A Perfect Blend!
The perfect blend between the classic hard rock and heavy metal sound Saxon have always wavered between. Despite being overshadowed by Solid Ball of Rock and Unleash the Beast, Dogs of War remains one of my favourite albums. The songs Dogs of War and The Great White Buffalo show Saxon are as capable as Iron Maiden of powering out historically inspired metal epics when at their best.

Burning Wheels, Big Twin Rolling, Hold On and Demolition Alley are classic rock tracks - reminiscent of Australian pub rockers AC/DC and The Angels. For 1995 this is brilliant stuff, and i wish more bands would write this sort of material! The only songs i skip are Don't Worry, because its just weak, and Walking Through Tokyo, which is good but a little uninteresting.

Saxon took on a full on, heavy metal sound after this album, so this is the perfect album to close the band's classic rock era. Recommended. .


Classic metal amidst the grunge

Maiden has hung tough, thanks to a ferocious following, and Def Leppard ceased to be metal after their first two albums. If Iron Maiden and Def Leppard were the two most successful bands to come out of the New Wave Of British Heavy Metal in the late '70's and early '80's, a great time for real metal fans, then Saxon probably is the most underrated, at least in the US. Saxon has retained enough of a primarily European audience to remain active to this day. Metal is a strange beast - the music is the most confining in all of rock, but those who excel enjoy life spans that far exceed most any other genre.
Saxon's reissue of 1995's "Dogs Of War" defiantly retains the classic metal sound they helped forge, thanks in part to being influenced by Judas Priest and Thin Lizzy, to name a few seminal metal bands. Biff Byford's vocals and lyrics remain the cornerstone of the Saxon sound, but his voice has aged noticeably to more of a boozy Bon Scott style tone, especially on "Big Twin Rolling".
The guitars are sharp and thankfully have not copped out to the dropped "D" grunge tuning that took over damn near every heavy band in the '90's. The title track should be plenty heavy enough for anybody, and I must admit it takes balls to record a very '80's sounding pop-metal tune on "Hold On. "
"Great White Buffalo" and "Walking Through Tokyo" show how bands weren't afraid to stretch their creative wings at one time, and bully for Saxon for doing it.
All in all, "Dogs Of War" is a fine latter day effort from a band that deserves much more credit than they've received over the years.


good album with a couple dogs
But it retains a few more "melodic" songs as I guess they or their label had not totally given up trying to be a top 40 metal act. As Byford's review says, this is a move back to the more straight ahead heavier Saxon sound. Which is weird because by 1995 grunge had taken over rock radio, in America at least.
The first song, Dogs of War, is a good opener and has some of the most groove for any Saxon song. Then a classic Saxon song for number two. Then song three. It's called Don't Worry. It should have been called Don't Play This Song. It's a horrible attempt, I guess, at a ballad but it never hits the mark in my book. After that the album evens out although Demolition alley is pretty uneven and one I'll probably skip over. Walking Through Tokyo is a very Saxonish anthem, a great song.
Overall I'd give this only 3. 5 stars as they were'nt quite back to just being the straight ahead denim and leather Saxon we want them to be. Some good songs but with some to avoid.


You can see a complete list of all Saxon discography, or go back to the Saxon tabs. There is also a good guide on how to read guitar tabs here.

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