Band:	Saxon
Album:	Carpe Diem
Style:	Heavy metal
Release date:	March 2022

01. Carpe Diem (Seize The Day)
02. Age Of Steam
03. The Pilgrimage
04. Dambusters
05. Remember The Fallen
06. Super Nova
07. Lady In Gray
08. All For One
09. Black Is The Night
10. Living On The Limit

Still going strong.

It’s hard to believe that this is the 24th album in Saxon’s long and eventful career, the newest instalment in a career that has seen the band rise to being one of the premier NWOBHM acts, fade into the background before re-emerging as an institution of straight up classic metal; Carpe Diem is the latest entry into one of the most seminal bands in the genre’s discography.

Consistency is an underrated quality in music, particularly for bands who manage to put out 24 albums; many groups are often running on fumes by the time they hit double digits, let alone two dozen releases. Saxon somehow manage to juggle quality and quantity in a way few other bands can, rewarding fans handsomely in the process.
While Carpe Diem is on the weaker side of their more recent releases, that isn’t to say that you won’t find plenty to enjoy on repeated listens. The album is an enjoyable effort, if not the most memorable record the band have put out in the last decade or so; the unfortunate result of having put out so many good records, Saxon must continuously raise the bar in order for new releases to stick out.

Much of Carpe Diem’s best moments bookend the album, such as “Age Of Steam”, a worthy next chapter in the band’s odes to steam propulsion. The closing trio of “All For One”, “Black Is The Night” and “Living On The Limit” are solid, upbeat, guitar-driven rockers that sign off the record on a high note, picking up where the first part of the record had left off. Saxon’s strengths once again lie in the guitar tandem of Quinn and Scarratt, who placed solid guitar work front and centre for Byford to sing around and Gibbs and Glocker to compliment and support. “Remember The Fallen” is a solid example of this interplay within the band, with the central riff hooking in listeners while the rest of the band round out the track to produce a solid, heavy-hitting experience.

Carpe Diem however, befalls the same problems many latter-day Saxon albums also face, namely struggling to find an identity for itself in a crowded discography without many classic tracks to hang its merits from, leaving you with another enjoyable album, but one that blends into the background and offers little to make you want to relisten to it over other Saxon albums. It is not that there is anything particularly bad, with the album’s lowest moments, “Super Nova” and “Lady In Gray”, still being good for occasional spins, but there are few moments that will draw you back to this album over many of the band’s previous 23 releases. Unfortunately for Saxon, they have spoiled fans with enough alternatives that an album like this gets lost in the shuffle and doesn’t offer much to draw your attention back to it.

A victim of their own success rather than the result of decline, Saxon lack the same amount of steam and momentum to keep pace with themselves; Carpe Diem sees the band slow down slightly, though still maintain enough power to make for an enjoyable album that is better than many bands half their age. Well worth seeking out if you are a fan of undiluted, guitar-driven metal.