Saxon - 'Witches Of Salem' (official lyric video)

In a sleepy quiet town, down Massachusetts way
The silence sudden broken by the chanting of the bay
Circling 'round a woman accused of witchcraft
Take it down before the judge to hear the damning draft

See the flames of bigotry leaping ever higher
Someone has to pay the price to feed the rapture's fire

Witches of Salem, burning at the stake
Witches of Salem, victims of the hate
Witches of Salem, unto Gallows Hill
Witches of Salem, they're hungry for the kill

Accusations made, filled with weight and malice
Betraying friends and neigbours before the holy chalice
Standing [?] before the mob [?] rules the day
Preaching fire and brimstone, there's nothing you can say

See the flames of bigotry leaping ever higher
Someone has to pay the price to feed the rapture's fire

Witches of Salem, burning at the stake
Witches of Salem, victims of the hate
Witches of Salem, onto Gallows Hill
Witches of Salem, they're hungry for the kill
Hungry for the kill
Onto Gallows Hill

Who beside the woman, who doesn't seem to fit
All it took was just a word to take them to the pit
If you plead your innocence you were taken to the trial
It didn't matter what you say, they won't believe denial

See the flames of bigotry leaping ever higher
Someone has to pay the price to feed the rapture's fire

Witches of Salem, burning at the stake
Witches of Salem, victims of the hate
Witches of Salem, onto Gallows Hill (Onto Gallows Hill)
Witches of Salem, they're hungry for the kill
Witches of Salem, burning at the stake (Burning at the stake)
Witches of Salem, victims of the hate
Witches of Salem, they're hungry for the kill (Hungry for the kill)
Witches of Salem, onto Gallows Hill

27 full length albums "γράφει" ήδη το (δισκογραφικό) κοντέρ" των Saxon. "Hell, Fire and Damnation" ο τίτλος και κυκλοφορόρησε στις αρχές του έτους. Ως προς την επιλογή του τίτλου ο Biff Byford μας εξηγεί:

«I’ve had that saying in my head since I was a small boy because my dad used to say it when he was upset. He used to say, ‘Hell, fire and damnation, what’s tha’ been doing now?!’ when I was ‘messing up his cabbage patch’ or carving things into the kitchen table. It was a very ‘Yorkshire’ saying back in the day.»

Δελτίο τύπου: «Hell, Fire And Damnation is an album which sees Saxon investigate all areas of history and mystery amidst ten of their most confident and thunderously powerful songs yet.

Biff delivers his richest vocals in years, Nigel Glockler and Nibbs Carter on drums and bass respectively lay down the rhythmic law with bombastic power and the guitars of Doug Scarratt and Brian Tatler are fresh and fiery, a perfect complement to each other, carrying an overall energy and fury which will have fans salivating.

Musically, Saxon bring it all to the table. There's a furious tribute to actual heavy metal in the denim & leather coated super-sprint “Fire And Steel”, a wonderful nod to the NWOBHM's birth in the electric mid-pace “Pirates Of The Airwaves”, but maybe the true treasure amidst the jewels is “There's Something In Roswell”, with the sort of expansive groove and embrace which deserves arenas.

Produced by Andy Sneap (Judas Priest, Exodus, Accept and Priest guitarist) and Biff Byford, with Sneap mixing and mastering, Hell, Fire And Damnation strides the perfect line between confident, current power and gloriously irreverent flexing of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal muscle which Saxon co-created.

2024 promises to be a great year for Saxon, with the European tour alongside Judas Priest and Uriah Heep kicking-off in the UK in March, plus the arrival of the heavy metal masterpiece Hell, Fire And Damnation.»

Παρακολουθούμε το lyric video του τραγουδιού "Witches Of Salem", για το οποίο ο Biff Byford μας λέει:

«This is an American story, but the witch trials started in Scotland, spread into England and across the sea to the colonies in America.

Those poor women in Salem,” explains Byford “they weren’t ‘witches’ more than just unfortunate women really, blamed for everybody’s ailments... whether your horse died, or the milk went sour, they blamed women.

Maybe because they were jealous of them, or maybe it was because some guy had made some advances and she’d told him to piss-off, so he’d declare that she was a witch.

And once a person was declared a witch, I don’t think there was any way back from that; very few of them were found innocent.»

Band: Saxon
Country of origin: United Kingdom
Location: Barnsley, South Yorkshire, England
Formed in: 1978
Genre: NWOBHM, Heavy Metal
Lyrical themes: History, Mythology, Motorcycles, Rock / Metal
Years active: 1970-1976 (as Blue Condition), 1976-1977 (as SOB), 1977-1978 (as Son of a Bitch), 1978-present

Lyric video: "Witches Of Salem"
Album: "Hell, Fire and Damnation"
Type: Full length
Release date: January 19th, 2024
Label: Silver Lining Music
Format: CD, 12" vinyl, Cassette, 3CD + 12" vinyl

Track listing:
01. The Prophecy
02. Hell, Fire and Damnation
03. Madame Guillotine
04. Fire and Steel
05. There's Something in Roswell
06. Kubla Khan and the Merchant of Venice
07. Pirates of the Airwaves
08. 1066
09. Witches of Salem
10. Super Charger

Band members:
Biff Byford - Vocals
Nigel Glockler - Drums
Nibbs Carter - Bass
Doug Scarratt - Guitars
Brian Tatler - Guitars

Guest/Session:
Brian Blessed - Narration (track 1)

Miscellaneous staff:
Biff Byford - Producer
Andy Sneap - Producer, Mixing, Mastering
Seb Byford - Recording
Jacky Lehmann - Recording
Péter Sallai - Cover art