OLIVER DAWSON SAXON – 'Motorbiker' (Angel Air)
Never judge a book – or in this case, a CD – by its cover. Oliver Dawson Saxon is, of course, the band formed by the ex-Saxon guitarist and bassist, with another ex-Saxon member Nigel Durham behind the drum kit, the wonderful Haydn Conway (who played guitar on Saracen’s second album) and the tarmac-screeching tonsils of John ‘Wardi’ Ward, a truly great frontman who was seemingly born to perform. But before you crack open the jewel case there’s the band’s glaring logo to get past, still trading heavily on the pair’s days in their previous band – albeit an employment that ended twenty-plus years ago – and the sub-Motörhead script and not-so-clever title (didn’t Lemmy’s boys put out ‘Motörizer’ a few years back?; and didn’t Saxon do a song called ‘Motorcycle Man’?) don’t do the album any favours…
But hold the front page! This is a GREAT album; a Really Great Album. It’s exciting, it’s attention-grabbing, and it packs a solid punch and a hard-edged contemporary sound. From the almost call-to-prayer opening of the Eastern-tinged ‘Chemical Romance’ to the dying notes of ‘Nursery Crimes’, ‘Motorbiker’ is 52 minutes of thoroughbred British metal. No fillers, no fakers: ‘Motorbiker’ serves up twelve slabs of deliciously-inviting no-nonsense neck-breakers and doesn’t look back from the off: check out the smack-in-the-face of ‘Whippin’ Boy’, the title track’s terrific harmony guitar break or the driving industrial jackboots of ‘No Way Out’ complete with soundbites ‘n’ samples from famous World War Two speeches and a driving beat which harks back to the band’s clever re-working of ‘Wheels Of Steel’ (‘Raeder Aus Stahl’) from 2003. Hell, even the ballad ‘Just Another Suicide’ is beautifully delivered with just enough poignancy and pain to pull at the heartstrings without being tacky enough to make slush-hating people like me want to stick my head in the gas oven.
‘Motorbiker’ is as exciting and stylish as it comes. The interplay between Oliver and Conway is top-notch, the rhythm section is as tight as they come and Wardi delivers the good with as much passion and vitriol as the moment dictates. If there’s a downside to this album it’s that ‘Ghost’, ‘Nursery Crimes’ and ‘World’s Gone Crazy’ have all appeared before on Communiqué Records ‘The Second Wave – 25 Years Of NWOBHM’ but I doubt that appears on too many people’s shelves. That, and the fact that I have a natural aversion to any song that recycles other song titles and lyrics (‘World’s Gone Crazy’); but that’s just a personal thing. This is a great album – have I already mentioned that? – and my advice to the band would be to drop the ‘Oliver Dawson Saxon’ and have enough faith to go out as O.D.S. (chuck in some umlauts as necessary) as on the strength of ‘Motorbiker’ there’s no need for Graham Oliver and Steve Dawson to fall back on past glories. The future lies firmly straight ahead: go get it, boys…
© John Tucker February 2011