Crusader

Personnel: Biff Byford (vocals); Graham Oliver, (guitar); Nigel Glockler (drums). Recording information: Sound City, Los Angeles, California. Even decades later, it's not easy to pinpoint the precise reasons for Saxon's gradual fall from grace, but suffice to say that by the time they released 1984's Crusader, the band had obviously stopped leading the New Wave of British Heavy Metal with its aggressive, blue-collar biker anthems and fallen in line behind Iron Maiden's epic historical themes and more challenging song structures. It did them no good: Crusader as a whole offers a slight improvement over the previous year's Power and the Glory from an overall songwriting perspective (the title track may have been very unlike Saxon, but was nevertheless stupendous heavy metal theater); but it also reveals a band that was perhaps taking itself too seriously. Ergo too much "Sailing to America" (tedious historical lecturing, unless it was meant to describe how Saxon were shipped to Los Angeles for this album's recording), "Do It All for You" (overwrought balladry that sailed right over the heads of its intended female audience), "Run for Your Lives" (gratuitous lyrical poppycock concluding in rather irresistible soccer chants), and not enough riotous bonhomie a la "A Little Bit of What You Fancy" and "Bad Boys (Like to Rock 'n' Roll)". Sadly, Saxon's attempt to redress this balance with their next album, Innocence Is No Excuse, would only lead to greater extremes of personality disorder and leave the group's fan base confused and utterly divided. ~ Eduardo Rivadavia