SAXON To Celebrate 40th Anniversary With 'The Eagle Has Landed 40 (Live)'

On August 2, SAXON, the British heavy metal vanguards who continue to deliver their seminal metal music to sold-out venues worldwide, will salute their 40th anniversary by releasing “The Eagle Has Landed 40 (Live)” via Militia Guard/Silver Lining Music, a cracking, crunching and wholly representative celebration of four decades as one of the U.K.’s leading heavy metal lights.

Entire musical genres have been born and died since SAXON released its self-titled debut in 1979, and through all the eras and all the trends, SAXON has continued to both entertain fans everywhere and prosper with albums and tours saturated in the band’s consistent trademark sound and quality. “The Eagle Has Landed 40 (Live)” celebrates all the classics from the group’s early years with the modern classics which have continued to define SAXON as legends.

Forty songs covering four decades, from “State Of Grace” to “Machine Gun”, from the blistering “20,000 FT” to the thunderous “Battering Ram”, SAXON brings you on a victorious, boisterous journey through the human waves at Wacken, the stalwart supporters in Berlin, the mad dogs and Englishmen in London and other illustrious international cities via a selection of songs chosen by none other than Biff Byford himself. There are also tributes to their old friends and former colleagues MOTÖRHEAD, with the supercharged “They Played Rock’N’Roll” and a cover of “Ace Of Spades”, featuring an appearance from the dearly departed “Fast” Eddie Clarke. And to round off the MOTÖRSAXON magic, there’s a roaring version of the classic “747 (Strangers in the Night)” featuring Phil Campbell from Helsinki in 2015.

The final result is not simply a triple album of great music, but a stirring and gloriously loud odyssey through golden years of metal history guaranteed to bring the headbanger out of even the mellowest rocker in the room.

SAXON supporters can enjoy “The Eagle Has Landed 40 (Live)” in various formats: a triple-CD combo packed in a six-panel digipack with a 16-page booklet, digital download and streaming. “The Eagle Has Landed 40 (Live)” will also be available as a 12-inch lid-off boxset, containing 5 x 12″ 180-gram vinyl, “The Eagle Has Landed 40 (Live)” tour pass and slipmat and an exclusive 40-page book.

The pièce de résistance, however, is the 747 Signature Edition Boxset — limited to 747 copies — which also includes an exclusive 23-plectrum set featuring album artwork from all 22 SAXON studio albums and a limited-edition “The Eagle Has Landed 40 (Live)” plectrum. The 747 Signature Edition Boxset also comes with Biff Byford‘s original hand-written lyric sheet of the “747 (Strangers In The Night)” song, with each print being hand-numbered and autographed by the man himself.