Seldom do British legends release something that isn’t new staff in a complete album version. They are always loyal to what they do, with regular and most of them very good releases.
Here we don’t have new pieces. “Unplugged and Strung Up” consists of Saxon’s compositions during their whole course the last 35 years, a little differentiated though. Originally we have “Stallions Of The Highway” in a remix version, very good but not easily recognized by someone who doesn’t belong to the core of the group’s fans. “Crusader”, “The Eagle Has Landed”, “Red Star Falling “, “Broken Heroes”, and “Call To Arms” are, I would say, the most interesting since they are orchestrated by parts of symphonic orchestra and they sound exceptional. They remind most intensely of Helloween’s release of “Unarmed” in 2010.
There are also the re-recordings of “Forever Free” and “Just Let Me Rock” , the original studio versions of “Battle Cry” and “Militia Guard” while the “Unplugged” of the title is justified by the last four pieces with the acoustic studio versions of “Frozen Rainbow” , “Requiem” and “Coming Home” and the live acoustic of “Iron Wheels”.
I consider “Unplugged And Strung Up “ to be an excellent release , something really different from what Saxon presented us so far and I hope we have a similar surprise during their upcoming tour in Fall.
