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9.0
- Bands:
SARACEN - Duration: 00:38:37
- Available since: 01/10/1981
- Label:
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Nucleus Records
The temptation – typical of a posteriori analysis – to force the soul of the NWOBHM into a codified sound or aesthetic, made 'only' of street attitude and raw, galloping riffs disguised with studs and shiny leather, is always around the corner, but often leads one astray. The rediscovery of albums and bands from the British underworld from the period between the Seventies and Eighties, however, has given us a multifaceted and complex portrait of a phenomenon that is much less uniform than subsequent narrative would have us believe. More than a specific genre, the musical-cultural ferment that generated superstars like Iron Maiden, Saxon or Def Leppard, or smaller groups like Saracen, was an unrepeatable convergence of different energies, aesthetics and musical forms, held together by a common necessity: to push the 'heavy' music of its time beyond its limits.
Saracen, in this sense, represent almost an emblematic example, similar to that of many bands such as Demon or Diamond Head who were able to carve out a respectable following without however making the definitive generational leap (or at least not immediately), remaining confined to that cult dimension which today fuels their charm, despite having continued their recording journey in the years to come with alternating fortunes. Born in the mid-'70s as Lammergier, well before the official explosion of the scene, they arrived at their debut with a background that looked more to the Judas Priest of “Sad Wings Of Destiny” and “Sin After Sin” and to Uriah Heep (even the incarnation with John Lawton on vocals) than to their rougher and more impetuous contemporaries. Yet, when “Heroes, Saints And Fools” saw the light in 1981, the album fit perfectly into the climate of the time: not because it sounded 'typically NWOBHM', but for having embodied that spirit of transition, of search for identity, which in some way defined the movement.
The group was born in the second half of the seventies around the guitarist and main composer Robert Bendelow and keyboardist Richard Lowe, long-time friends from Matlock, Derbyshire. The first incarnation of the band had a decidedly more progressive imprint than the future Saracens, with influences, declared several times by the protagonists, ranging from Yes to Emerson, Lake & Palmer. Alongside Bendelow and Lowe, bassist Barry Yates soon arrived, initially a folk guitarist – and you can hear it! – converted to bass to join the project, while the definitive line-up took shape only towards the end of the decade with the entry of drummer John Thorne and above all of the singer Steve Bettney, with a very powerful and clear uvula halfway between the very first Rob Halford and Bob Catley of Magnum. It was precisely this line-up that recorded “Heroes, Saints And Fools“defining that very particular balance between epic hard rock, progressive and early NWOBHM elements, with songs that told of heroes, saints, jesters and aliens, elements that still make the album so difficult to classify today.
The criticism was immediately harsh on our team; the sharp pen of the great Geoff Banks in Kerrang!, the most important trade organ of the time, dismissed Saracen's debut with typically English sarcasm: “I prefer Magnum if we talk about pomp rock… […] …Saracen pose no threat to Magnum, who remain the only pomp band really worth listening to… […] …you can form your own opinion, but as far as I'm concerned it's better to leave Saracen alone and listen to Magnum“. A judgment that we feel like defining, with hindsight, certainly ungenerous, but not entirely unfounded. The comparison with Magnum, in fact, is not at all out of place: both bands share that melodic tension and that taste for the 'romantic' epic that has its roots in the elegance of British rock of the 70s, combining a powerful hard rock vein with the melodiousness of AOR and the refinement of English progressive, but while the latter will be able to channel these suggestions into a more accessible and cohesive form, bringing it into focus precisely in the years following Saracen's debut, our band remains suspended in a middle ground, as fascinating as it is unresolved, perhaps too heavy metal for lovers of hard rock pomp and too epic, pompous and stratified for those who followed the NWOBHM.
The opening entrusted to “Crusader”, in fact, is one of the most iconic of the entire NWOBHM: epic, full of narrative tension and a structure much closer to the model of a heavy-prog suite than to that of a typical album opener of the time. Richard Lowe's keyboards envelop everything with a role that is anything but decorative, while Robert Bendelow's guitar builds a melodic construction immediately defining the stylistic perimeter of the album. Thus, while British heavy metal was experiencing one of its most fertile seasons, releasing cornerstones such as “Killers” by Iron Maiden, “Denim And Leather” by Saxon, “Welcome To Hell” by Venom, “High 'N' Dry” by Def Leppard or lesser-known gems such as “The Nightcomers” by Holocaust, “Hit And Run” by Girlschool or “Shock Tactics” by Samson in 1981, Saracen were traveling a lateral and personal trajectory. When the band decides to push the accelerator, however, the points of contact with the contemporary scene clearly emerge. “Rock Of Ages” inevitably brings to mind early Iron Maiden, even if a more elegant and layered taste emerges beneath the surface, far from the urban fury of Harris and co. Steve Bettney, for his part, dominates the piece with an impressive vocal performance, suspended between the cutting high notes of early Rob Halford and the theatrical lyricism of Bob Catley or John Lawton, confirming how central the melodic component was to the band's identity. When Saracen abandons more conventionally heavy territory, however, “Heroes, Saints And Fools” definitively reveals its charm. The title track is the beating heart of the album: over seven minutes of organ-infused harmonies, acoustic guitars and choral openings that seem to emerge directly from a medieval and romantic imagery. Bendelow enriches the structures with solos of great taste while Lowe builds an atmospheric carpet that brings the group closer to the Uriah Heep of “Salisbury” or “Demons And Wizards” than to their peers of the rougher NWOBHM like Satan, who in those days released their first demo and set the clubs of Tyne and Wear alight. It is not progressive in the canonical sense of the term, but it fully retains that elegant look and the desire to overflow the confines of a musical genre that was already narrow to many of the protagonists who had defined it.
“Dolphin Ride”, a short, suspended and dreamy instrumental, breaks the rhythm of the album with a delicacy that even evokes certain atmospheres of the most ethereal Camel; on the contrary, “No More Lonely Nights”, more rocking with its easy-to-grasp refrain, also included by Polygram's will after the interest in the distribution of the album originally published by the small Nucleus Records, is a less memorable episode, betraying the label's desire to make our voice reach as many listeners as possible. On the opposite front we find “Horsemen Of The Apocalypse” and “Ready To Fly”, probably the two episodes in which the souls of the Saracens coexist in the most convincing way. The first builds a dark and solemn atmosphere through incisive riffs and majestic keyboards, while the second showcases all the band's ability to blend impact, melody and technique without ever losing compactness. Here Bendelow is simply extraordinary: all the solos, phrasings and combinations actually seem to arise from a narrative need, for a continuous lesson in measure, taste and emotional intensity combined with a surprising balance for a band that is still underground.
Probably, the total inability to really adhere to a precise formula was both the great strength of “Heroes, Saints And Fools” and its most obvious weakness, if we think about its success. Too melodic and theatrical, as mentioned, for NWOBHM purists, too heavy for the more orthodox prog audience, the album remained suspended in a limbo which probably limited its immediate success, but which today represents its greatest value. Forty-five years later, Saracen's debut continues to convey that unrepeatable sensation of creative freedom typical of an era in which metal had not yet decided and did not yet know what it would become, and for this very reason it could still allow itself to wander within labile and still undefined boundaries.
Having returned together at the beginning of the 2000s, first releasing an album under the Templar moniker, Saracen – with some changes in the lineup after the passing of Barry Yates and John Thorne – continue to release good quality records, probably aware of the unattainability of the peaks of their debut. Yet, especially after their first ever Italian date last year at the In The Best Tradition Festival in Mosciano Sant'Angelo (TE), they proved that they are still privileged witnesses and harbingers of the authentic spirit of a now legendary era, with much more sincerity and passion than many historical names who today, amidst arguments, reunions, lineup changes and legal cases, are still in circulation…
Daniel D`Amico for SANREMO.FM
