Following the tour for 1985’s ‘Innocence Is No Excuse’, founding member Steve ‘Dobby’ Dawson quit the band, leaving Saxon without a bassist and with far less of a moustache quotient. Without securing a replacement, the band re-entered the studio. With Biff Byford handling vocals and bass duties for the recording sessions of what would eventually become ‘Rock The Nations’, Saxon wouldn’t lose momentum. This seemed like the natural solution until a permanent replacement could be found.
Watch the new video from Andy K. Leland
Following the split of alternative rock band My Cruel Goro, Andrea Marcellini unleashed his “shadow self” Andy K. Leland and set about recording stripped down, acoustic demos of more personal songs. The results eventually took shape as the DIY EP ‘Happy Daze’ in September 2017.
Listen to the new single by Darkwing
Brooklyn’s Darkwing make a huge sound. It isn’t one that’s easily pigeonholed: some of the vocals draw influence from 80s goth bands like Bauhaus with their echoing presence, but they aren’t a goth band. The drums rattle at speed like they’re driving a solid piece of garage rock, but if you’re looking for something along the lines of The Hives or a DIY band signed to Brooklyn’s own King Pizza Records…just forget it.
BRASS OWL – Brass Owl
Founded in 2017, Brass Owl is an Ohio based power trio delivering a hefty dose of blues rock, often with a very southern twang. Their choice of sound often falls somewhere between Black Stone Cherry, something featuring Zakk Wylde and the more tuneful bits of Corrosion of Conformity (circa their John Custer produced millennial masterpiece ‘America’s Volume Dealer). Those influences alone should guarantee them a fan following. However, it’s what a band does with their influences that really counts and it’s probably fair to say that Brass Owl’s debut is a mixed bag.
SAXON – Innocence Is No Excuse
As 1984 drew to a close so, too, did Saxon’s contract with Carrere Records. The past few years had been good to them, though: in a little over five years, they’d released seven albums for the French label, which scored six top twenty UK chart positions. That year’s woeful ‘Crusader’ aside, it represented an impressive body of work, one of which any classic metal band could be proud. Obviously, with Saxon being one of the decade’s biggest metal acts, a new deal wasn’t hard to secure and Biff Byford and the boys subsequently signed with giants EMI for a three album deal that would last the rest of the decade.