17. Saracen Heroes, Saints & Fools 1981 (Nucleus)
Heavy Metal
Kneel before the necromancer, judgement day is here.
Album
Derbyshire’s Saracen were one of the numerous musical assemblages to make up the NWOBHM spectrum and they were also a band that had their feet firmly planted in the progressive rock camp, as opposed to a pure metal one. Saracen also differed to other metal bands with a proggy slant, in that istead of just trying to include their progressive rock influences into their sound, Saracen were more inclined to actually mold those prog influences instead, which raises the question over the band’s true musical identity! One of the most noticeable things about this album, is surely the quality of production on offer here and it’s the vital ingredient that makes the album, as the low budget feel often associated with NWOBHM debuts, just wouldn’t have delivered the proggy-laden style of the band as it should be heard. The opening track is “Crusader” which of course was the historical foe of the Saracen and this is one of several tracks to come in at over 6 minutes of playing time and it immediately harks back to 1970s Uriah Heep in both feel and style. The second track “Rock of Ages” no not the Def Leppard one, is one of those straight forward rock-out tracks, but the heavy use of pomp-rock style keyboards again raises question marks over the correct label for this band. Then there is also a song like “No More Lonely Nights” which is a melodic hard rock track that could’ve been recorded by any number of hard rock acts out there with commercial ambitions. But the real highlights of the album are surely its two progressive gems “Horsemen of the Apocolypse” which has a keyboard lead that any number of up and coming ‘New Romantics’ bands’ would’ve been proud of and this gem is followed by the superb album closer “Ready to Fly” an exceptional 8 minute track that was once described as a heavy metal version of Pink Floyd! The big letdown on the album though is surely the title track “Heroes, Saints & Fools” which is something of an anamoly given its glorious musical arrangements that should make it the album’s killer track, but it’s really letdown by the secondary vocals that are employed on the song and also the instrumental “Dolphin Ride” doesn’t fit much either. Singer Steve Bettney is very reminiscent of Rob Halford on practically every song on the album which of course is a positive. Overall
Heroes, Saints & Fools is one of the most diverse offerings of 1981 and the band really tinkered with their track selections at strategic points on the album, and without doubt it’s the lengthy prog-laden material that wins out overall here in terms of quality. Whenever I listen to the Saracen debut, it often reminds me of America’s Legs Diamond not in actual sound, but more in overall feel, as Legs Diamond were a band that covered similar territory a few years earlier (see 1977 reviews) and in songs like “Rock and Roll Man” they certainly matched or if not surpassed what Saracen were putting out.