SAXON – Rock The Nations ’86 [Remastered CD digipak +8] (2022) *HQ*

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As requested, here’s the recent remastered reissue of SAXON 1986’s album ”Rock The Nations”, including 8 very good bonus tracks. Saxon goes commercial? Sure, it was 1985-86, you needed polish to be on the radio. Did they sold their souls? Not at all! All songs rock here, and the band didn’t lost their fire as hear on the live bonuses ‘Live at Reading 1986’.
After the slick, streamlined ‘Innocence Is No Excuse’, ”Rock The Nations” sees the band return to a harder, grittier style but there’s still a bit of radio-friendly finesse needed for the era. But the album has a strong, muscular production, and some killer tracks.
The opening title-track gets things off to a great start with its bold, blocky riffing and gruff vocals and the next track Battle Cry is even better, a strident true metal belter. Byford’s vocals are astonishingly passionate and gutsy, the arena-ready main riff is absolutely inspired simplicity and the rhythm section is flawless and propulsive. It’s a triumph.
Next, ‘Waiting For The Night might be too much commercial for first-era Saxon followers, but for mid-80s Melodic Rock / AOR fans it’s a great tune.
Recorded at Wisseloord Studios in Holland with producer Gary Lyons, ”Rock The Nations” ended up being the most exuberant, balls-out rock album that Saxon had made since Denim And Leather in 1981.

Kicking off with the thunderous title track and the similarly strident ‘Battle Cry’, it’s an album that wears its devotion to the adrenalin rush and the rock ‘n’ roll ethos like a badge of honour; a reflection, it transpires, of the wild time the Saxon boys had in the studio. “We had a great time with Gary in particular,” laughs Biff. “He was a great character. He used to line up
vodkas on the front of the desk and every time Nigel hit the toms he’d drink one! It was one of those rock ‘n’ roll albums, if you know what I mean. We used to have two BMWs that we used to race back to the hotel. It was a bit hair-raising! There was a famous incident when Paul took one of the BMWs and drove it into the front of a tram. His excuse to the police was that he thought the tram was going to turn off, but they just said ‘No, it’s on rails, mate! Ha ha!”

Aside from the self-evident hard rock power of songs like ‘We Came Here To Rock’ and ‘Running Hot’, ”Rock The Nations” boasted one other major selling point, in that it featured a guest appearance from one of the biggest stars on the planet, Elton John.
By no means the most obvious collaborator for one of the UK’s finest hard rock bands, the esteemed Mr. Dwight’s contribution came about because of a previous association with producer Gary Lyons. “Gary had done an album with him and Kiki Dee, so he knew him well and used to call him Reg all the time!” says Biff Byford “We only actually met him twice. He had a helicopter coming to fetch him all the time because he was off to some royal wedding, Prince Andrew’s or something like that, so we didn’t really see him.

But Gary asked him to play piano on this song we had called ‘Party Till You Puke’, which was a bit out of character for him and he quite liked that! He plays boogie woogie piano and he did it very well. He caught one of his fingernails on a piano key and cut it, so there’s a really loud ‘Oh fuck!’ on the track! You can hear it on there if you listen carefully.
Later, we were doing the song ‘Northern Lady’ and Elton was playing along, practising to it. Because Phillips owned the studio we had one of the first stereo samplers in there and we were messing around and we sampled him. He only really played on Party Till You Puke. He didn’t really play on Northern Lady… we stole him!”

At a time when rock and metal fans were beginning to be dazzled by the glamour and sleaze of LA’s Sunset Strip, Saxon were still making great music with heart, soul and Great British grit.
“In that period, all Our contemporaries and peers were slipping because there was this big surge of interest in what was happening across the water, concedes Biff. “The Brit Rock thing was happening at that time too, with Little Angels, Thunder and The Quireboys and they were all getting a lot of press. But ”Rock The Nations” was received well by our fans, even though I don’t think we made any new fans because of it. But we were still pretty powerful at that time.
That tour was great and we always used to play four or five tracks from the album and they used to go down well. It’s the rockiest of those three albums, from Innocence to Destiny. The melodies are strong and people want big melodies and big choruses from Saxon. That’s what we’re good at, isn’t it?”

When compared to the obvious Saxon classics like Wheels Of Steel and Strong Arm Of The Law, ”Rock The Nations” may never be regarded as one of the band’s greatest works – but with no weak tracks, a fiery, stripped down produchon job, and some brilliantly passionate and punchy performances from Biff, guitarists Paul Quinn and Graham Oliver and drummer Nigel Glockler, it’s an album that fully deserves to be revisited and reassessed.
Highly Recommended

01 – Rock The Nations
02 – Battle Cry
03 – Waiting For The Night
04 – We Came Here To Rock
05 – You Ain’t No Angel
06 – Running Hot
07 – Party Til You Puke
08 – Empty Promises
09 – Northern Lady
BONUS TRACKS:
10 – Chase The Fade (B-side of ‘Waiting For The Night’)
11 – Waiting For The Night (7” single edit)
12 – Northern Lady (7” single edit)
13 – Everybody Up (Live in Madrid) (B-side)
14 – Dallas 1 PM (Live in Madrid) (B-side)
15 – Power And The Glory (Live at Reading 1986)
16 – Rock The Nations (Live at Reading 1986)
17 – Waiting For The Night (Live at Reading 1986)

Biff Byford – Lead Vocals, Bass
Paul Quinn – Guitars
Graham Oliver – Guitars
Nigel Glocker – Drums
Paul Johnson – Bass
with:
Elton John – Piano on 7, 9

BUY
www.amazon.com/Rock-Nations-Saxon/dp/B09MZK2TZN