Unexploited Potential and Endless Plodding - A Review of Saxon's Carpe Diem

After the lacklustre cover album Inspirations, British heavy metal veterans Saxon come around with a brand-new release featuring ten new songs for a total running time of forty-four minutes. Sadly, the band's twenty-fifth studio album is no improvement over its predecessor and bores with old-fashioned genre stereotypes without any creativity, passion or wit.

Things start on a low note with the opening title track ''Carpe Diem (Seize the Day)'' that repeats the title to death to a point that it almost becomes a brainwashing session by listening comprehension.

''The Pilgrimage'' shows how an interesting idea can be entirely wasted. The song evokes an epic atmosphere with almost cinematic vibes at the start. Sadly, the band doesn't develop anything upon that idea and simply stretches that one idea to an insufferable length of six and a half minutes.

''Lady in Grey'' suffers from a similar issue. The song tries to evoke a mysterious atmosphere reminding slightly of psychedelic rock stylistics of the late sixties. However, the unusual idea isn't pushed any further and the track plods along without any energy for more than five sleep-inducing minutes.

To be fair, Saxon's new record isn't entirely bad and includes at least two reasonably decent tunes. ''Age of Steam'' is a heroic heavy metal anthem with atmosphere and grit that manages to stay on your mind after a first try.

The closing ''Living on the Limit'' clocks in at less than three minutes and convinces with powerful speed and tight chemistry in the instrumental department.

Two very good songs out of ten are however not enough to give this release any attention or to even justify a potential purchase. Saxon needs to improve two elements in order to capitalize on some of its promising ideas. First and foremost, they need some desperate help in the songwriting department to develop their concepts beyond the initial stage. Secondly, the band has to keep its songs energetic, short and tight as the band sounds especially tiresome in the long and plodding tunes.

Saxon's twenty-fifth studio album Carpe Diem is only recommended to avid collectors and faithful fans. There are numerous other heavy metal bands, both experienced veterans and fresh newcomers, who have by now outclassed Saxon who are living on their reputation of yore. The band hasn't released an entirely convincing record in quite some time now. While the band is still great in concert, the group's recent material is quite forgettable.

Final Rating: 55%