Collection: Unplugged And Strung Up

UNPLUGGED AND STRUNG UP

UNPLUGGED AND STRUNG UP (Nov 22nd 2013) is a back-catalog visit featuring interpretations of SAXON tracks through orchestral accompaniment, acoustic revisions and re-recordings.

UNPLUGGED AND STRUNG UP is your chance to hear SAXON do some pretty killer overhauls on tunes such as "Call to Arms", "Just Let Me Rock", "Forever Free" and "Requiem" plus orchestral versions of "Red Star Falling", "Crusader" and "Broken Heroes" along with acoustic treatments of "Coming Home" and "Iron Wheels".

Of the orchestral songs, the most impressive is "The Eagle Has Landed" with its dense layers of metal, synths and strings, all superbly mixed. Of the acoustic songs, "Frozen Rainbow" from "Saxon" is the most remarkable, stripped down to a gentle ballad with its twelve-string textures and sensuous solo. The live acoustic version of "Iron Wheels" is one of the most poignant tracks on "Unplugged and Strung Up", served as a biographical account of Biff Byford's father. Then the swampy moonshine slides of "Coming Home" from "Killing Ground" is a knee-pumping bit of fun as SAXON's tribute to Robert Johnson and American delta blues.

There are new takes of "Battle Cry" from "Rock the Nations" and a very strong version of "Militia Guard", plus a remix of "Stallions of the Highway", the latter two coming from the first album. These songs have been tweaked and re-recorded with extra layers. In the case of "Militia Guard", there are traces of acoustic guitars filtering behind the main drive of the song, accenting it more than the original cut. [Ray Van Horn, Jr./Blabbermouth]