The Eagle Has Landed Part III

Saxon

With the craze of revisiting a particular and often very successful period in history that […]
By David Kaluza
June 30, 2006
Saxon - The Eagle Has Landed Part III album cover

With the craze of revisiting a particular and often very successful period in history that is going on among aging heavy metal bands these days, it was just a matter of time before Saxon would also decide to jump on the bandwagon. So it happens that exactly a decade after their previous live album, the eagle lands once again. Third time's a charm? Continue reading to find out!
Before we get to the actual album however, I would first like to say that unlike a lot of other bands and their hastily put together and often mediocre live releases (yes...I am looking straight at you Mr. Ronnie James Dio), Saxon do deserve the benefit of the doubt for two reasons. The first being that unlike many of their colleagues, Saxon have always struggled on, even in their lesser periods, and actually slowly managed to turn a rather disastrous period (the end of the 80's) around, resulting in albums which have been going from decent to really good ever since the early 90's. And all of this without any sort of cheap gimmicks and forced, pathetic reunions. You just have to respect that.
The second reason why I value The Eagle Has Landed Part III above other recent live offerings that pull the nostalgia card, is that Saxon have actually thought the entire idea over a bit. Instead of doing it the cheap and easy way by playing the same fifteen songs that they always do and recording those for this live release, they actually put together a tracklist consisting of rare and seldom-played live tracks. No Princess Of The Night or Strangers In The Night thus, but rather a couple of old gems like Never Surrender or Frozen Rainbow. On top of this, they also choose NOT to ignore their most recent offerings and have filled the second disc in this package with more recent songs, with the majority hailing from the rather excellent Lionheart album. This makes for a rather outstanding collection of songs, which should please pretty much every fan of the band.
Sadly not everything about The Eagle Had Landed Part III is equally brilliant. Due to the fact that the album is recorded over the course of two years and in a variety of different places (no less than nine different shows have been cut together) it appears that a bit of the live atmosphere has sadly gone missing. The songs in itself are excellently performed, but thanks to the omission of the majority of onstage banter and interaction it all feels a bit flat at times. Almost as if you were just listening to a compilation of Saxon songs instead of an actual live recording.
Another slight problem comes in the form of the drum-sound. Although the production in general is certainly above average, the drums lack punch and sound hollow at times and it occasionally seems as if the second guitar is, for some uncanny reason, pushed back in the mix a bit too far as well. It is not bad enough to spoil your enjoyment of the recordings completely, but all of these small things do slightly take you out of the live performance as well.
In the end though, The Eagle Has Landed Part III certainly classifies as one of the better attempts at a live album as of late. The band is notorious for it's great performances and even though the sound might not always be up to scratch, you still get a lot of top notch metal for your money. Especially older songs like To Hell And Back Again and Stallions Of The Highway sound a lot better than they ever did on the studio albums, and it is fun to hear more recent tracks like Travelers In Time, Unleash The Beast or Lionheart in a live environment as well. Still, I do hope that the next time the band does a live album we once again get treated to the complete recording of a single show instead.

7 / 10

Good

"The Eagle Has Landed Part III" Track-listing:

Disc 1

This Town Rocks
Backs To The Wall
Redline
Stand Up And Be Counted
Never Surrender
Frozen Rainbow
Suzie Hold On
Play It Loud
Warrior
See The Lights Shining
To Hell And Back Again
Stallions of The Highway
Wheels of Steel
And The Bands Played On

Disc 2

The Return
Lionheart
Man & Machine
Beyond The Grave
Searching for Atlantis
To Live By The Sword Pt.I
Unleash The Beast
To Live By The Sword Pt.II
Flying On The Edge
Jack Tars
English Man'O'War
Court of The Crimson King
Broken Heroes
Dragon's Lair
Rock Is Our Life
Travellers In Time
Solid Ball Of Rock

Saxon Lineup:

Biff Byford - Vocals
Paul Quinn - Guitar
Doug Scarratt - Guitar
Nibbs Carter - Bass
Jörg Michael - Drums (2004 recordings)
Nigel Glockler - Drums (2005 recordings)

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