Metal Shock Finland's Alison Booth recently caught up with Saxon frontman Biff Byford to discuss the forthcoming Eagles And Dragons release. A few excerpts follow:

Discussing Eagles And Dragons Biff stated: “It goes through that dodgy early nineties period when the British bands were having a few problems with the grunge explosion happening around them. It goes through that and different member changes, different drummers on there, it’s just a great package really. There’s some absolute gems in there, you can here a band morphing from the late eighties to basically now really. Hopefully people can carry it, it weighs a ton! The artwork looks great on vinyl rather than CD, you see the depth of the painting.”

On legendary Saxon artist Paul Gregory, Biff enthused: “The first album we did was Crusader in ’84. He’s done other album covers as well for other bands, but I think the ones he does for us probably connect to his style - more the mythical side and the whole Saxon image goes with what he does really. So from Crusader right up to Lionheart, which is a fantastic cover with the shield and everything. We work together me and Paul, so it’s good to keep a good team together.”

Regarding Battering Ram and touring plans for this year, Biff revealed: “We’re gonna go out and tour again, because obviously with Lemmy dying suddenly we couldn’t finish the Battering Ram tour we were doing with Motörhead and Girlschool. We’re gonna go out in October and finish that tour, I don’t like leaving it unfinished. We’re gonna try and take out Girlschool if they’re up for it, so the fans will have a little bit of the same package. We’re probably going to go back to America if we can squeeze it in and gonna go to Japan maybe October. We’re touring October to December, so it could be Europe, UK, a bit of America in there. We’re putting it together now, so keep your eyes open!”

On being together for so long and the secret of keeping going, Biff said: “If you listen to the albums you can see the secret, I mean we’re definitely members of the Never Surrender Club. So yeah, great songs, that’s the secret. And surround yourself with people that are great at doing their job. It hasn’t always been the case with our albums, with producers and things, but I think for at least eight of those albums production is great.”

Listen to the full interview at Metal Shock Finland.

Saxon have launched a video trailer (see below) for their upcoming vinyl box set featuring nine albums recorded between 1991 and 2009. Entitled Eagles And Dragons, the set will be available via Demon Records on March 18th.

The titles will be pressed on 180-gram vinyl and each will include inner sleeves with lyrics, in a hand-numbered outer slipcase box with a specially commissioned cover painting by artist Paul Gregory. 500 copies with a framable print of the cover signed by frontman Biff Byford will be available exclusively via Demon's online store.

Says Biff Byford: “From 1991’s Solid Ball Of Rock to 2009’s Into The Labyrinth, this is the first time we have ever had a vinyl box set of nine albums in one package – never to be done again – with exclusive cover art work from Paul Raymond Gregory. I can't wait to get my hands on one.”

Albums included:

Solid Ball Of Rock - 1991
Forever Free - 1992
Dogs Of War - 1995
Unleash The Beast - 1997
Metalhead - 1999
Killing Ground - 2001
Lionheart - 2004
The Inner Sanctum - 2007
Into The Labyrinth - 2009

Trailer: