Metal Express Radio recently caught up with SAXON frontman Biff Byford to discuss the band's new album, Sacrifice. An excerpt is available below:

MER: There's ten songs on the standard album. Does that represent pretty much everything that you wrote during those writing sessions or do you have a few songs left over for future use?

Biff: "There's a few riffs and ideas left over but we decided not to carry on with those and concentrated on the ones that have ended up on the album. We might resurrect them for the next album and work on them again or they might stay in the bin forever."

MER: As an album it's fairly short by today’s standards clocking in at around 40 minutes. Are you going for a sort of smash and grab impact here?

Biff: "We don't really go in for quantity, we go for quality. I think 10 or 11 songs is great and you don't want 18 or 19 songs on an album as they start to sound a bit the same when you get that many. We like to keep it short and to the point with just great songs. People just listen to their favourites anyway, so there's no point writing too many."

MER: Musically, your last couple of albums in particular have seen you hitting a rich vein of form. Sacrifice sees you heading in an even heavier direction.

Biff: "I wanted this album to be an intense listening experience. I think you have to keep one foot in the past and one in the present. Some songs are quite modern sounding like 'Guardians Of The Tomb' but we still have sight of where we came from and keep in touch with our roots. I would say this album is heavier and thrashier than before."

Go to this location for the complete interview.

Saxon debuted the first official video from their upcoming album, album, Sacrifice, which will be released on March 1st in Europe, March 4th in the UK, and March 26th in North America. Check out the title track below:

Sacrifice tracklisting:

'Procession'

'Sacrifice'

'Made In Belfast'

'Warriors Of The Road'

'Guardians Of The Tomb'

'Stand Up And Fight'

'Walking The Steel'

'Night Of The Wolf'

'Wheels Of Terror'

'Standing In A Queue'

Bonus track:

'Luck Of The Draw' (iTunes only)

Bonus Disc:

'Crusader' (Orchestrated version)

'Just Let Me Rock' (Re-recorded version)

'Requiem' (Acoustic version)

'Frozen Rainbow' (Acoustic version)

'Forever Free' (Re-recorded version)

An EPK for the album can be seen below:

Taking a sharper, re-invigorated approach to the production, on this, their 20th album, Saxon have produced 10 of their strongest, heaviest and most inspired songs for many-a-year, and a more than worthy successor to their last album, A Call To Arms.

Check out a track-by-track overview by BraveWords scribe Mark Gromen at this location.

Saxon have extended their Sacrifice World Tour, adding a continental European leg, to kick off on June 7th at Sweden Rock Festival.

Says the band: "Rest assured that this will not be all - we will be announcing further dates to complete our world run and be back with some great surprises!"

Saxon tour dates:

March

24 - Plaza Condesa - Mexico City, Mexico
26 - A Seringueira - Sao Paulo, Brazil
28 - El Teatro Flores - Buenos Aires, Argentina
30 - Gillmanfest - Caracas, Venezuela

April

18- Assembly - Leamington Spa, UK

19 - Rock City - Nottingham, UK
20 - Academy - Newcastle, UK
21 - ABC - Glasgow, UK
23 - Ritz - Manchester, UK
24 - Leeds, UK - Academy
26 - Wulfrun Hall - Wolverhampton, UK
27 - Shepherd's Bush Empire - London, UK
28 - Academy - Bristol, UK

June

7 - Sölvesborg, Sweden - Sweden Rock Festival
8 - Copenhagen, Denmark - Amager Bio
10 - Brno, Czech Republic - Fleda
11 - Vienna, Austria - Arena
12 - Ljubljana, Slovenia - Cvetlicarna
14 - Florence, Italy - Viper
15 - Rome, Italy - Orion
16 - Milan, Italy - Magazzini Generali
18 - Barcelona, Spain - Bikini
19 - Madrid, Spain - Sala Arena
21 - Clisson, France - Hellfest Festival
22 - Sankt Goarshausen, Germany - Metalfest
23 - Lucerne, Switzerland - Konzerthaus Schüür
24 - Solothum, Switzerland - Kofmhel
26 - Aschaffenburg, Germany - Colos Saal
27 - Memmingen, Germany - Kaminwerk
28 - Osnabrück, Germany - Halle Gartlage
29 - Dessel, Belgium - Graspop Metal Meeting