Saxon had completed the recording of their next studio album, titled “Thunderbolt”, which will be released in early 2018, as Biff Byfford revealed to Myglobalmind. “I finished doing the vocals on September 20th, and Andy Sneap is mixing it at the moment. It sounds really good. There are no big surprises on the CD. We haven’t turned into Lady Gaga.I like Lady Gaga, as it’s a bit of a compliment. We haven’t changed into a different kind of band”, said Biff. The album’s theme is Greek mythology: “‘Thunderbolt’ is about Greek gods, so I read up on Greek mythology. There’s not really that much. Homer had some writings… I made most of it up, but it’s based on Zeus and Poseidon and Hades, so it’s got a bit of good and a bit of evil in it, so it’s pretty cool. Obviously Zeus’s sign was a thunderbolt and his sign was an eagle holding a lightning bolt (Ed, not really!).” The album will also include a song dedicated to Motörhead, “The Played Rock’n’Roll”: “that’s what Lemmy used to say every night. “It’s basically about early Motörhead — ’79/’80 Motörhead, like around ‘No Sleep ‘Til Hammersmith’, ’cause that’s the tour we were on, that one. So, yeah, it’s about the band, really, and their music. (…) I asked Nibbs to write me some music that was like Motörhead, and he did. So it sounds very Motörhead -ish, but not Motörhead, if you know what I mean.”
