Unplugged and Strung Up

I have all of Saxon's studio and live albums. I hope I do...I've seen these guys live several times. Amazing!!! Very unappreciated band in the States. In Europe they play to tens of thousands people at a time. Here in the US I've seen them play to a hundred or so die-hard fans in a sports bar or a small rock club... But I digress.This disc is a very solid effort. Most of the stuff I knew from before.But the new interpretations add a lot heavier feel to the songs.And the orchestra backing is really giving it a new depth.I think it is a very good addition to any Saxon fan.Also, it would be a great introduction for those who are trying to discover one of the greatest bands of NWOBHM...

I have enjoyed Saxon since Denim and Leather, I kinda laid them to the side during the years but it was nice to get the download for this cd. Since my Saxon days I have been drawn more to dark, doom and death metal, but man I must say it is a nice change to listen to some good old fashioned rock again! As I said this was a download and not the CD so I cannot review how the CD might arrive, but all the songs downloaded at a great price!

excellent

I was skeptical as I haven't been too fond of the orchestral re-workings of Saxon's music. But this came off very well. I would have liked more acoustic numbers, like the fantastic Requiem, as the album title implies. A must have for Saxon fans.

THE ADDITION OF ORCHASTRAL BACK-UP TO SEVERAL SONGS IS AWSOME!! UMPLUGGED IS GREAT TOO!! WORTH THE $$$$!! IF YOUR A SAXON FAN THIS IS A MUST ...............

I know Saxon since more than 25 years. This "best of" is a good one but it is not enough for 5 stars. Some new versions are awesome like Crusader some are not. If you start with Saxon then choose the legendary live album "Eagle has landed" or the studio album "Power and the glory".But they are still my heroes.

excellent article, very good presentation, and arrived in perfect condition, fully satisfied

This was a gift for my Husband. He is a big saxon fan and owns most of their CDs. He is enjoying this CD. He says it's new and different but not so much unplugged.

After watching Saxon live at Wacken where they had a small orchestra with them for a few songs (strings, percussion, keyboards), I was blown away by the symphonic touches on the classic Saxon sound. I got in touch with Saxon's team and asked them about if there was an album with an orchestra that they'd done, and I was directed to this album. And it's brilliant.A song like Crusader sounds even better with the dynamics and degree of epic added by the strings and percussion in this Orchestrated Version; this was what the song was made for. Stallions of the Highway is blasted into this century with a new re-recorded version, a worthy remake of the original classic. The Orchestrated Version of The Eagle Has Landed is another triumph on this album too. With the original being the epic closer of The Power & The Glory album, this version is both modernised and taken down a different path, resulting in a brilliant addition to this album. Militia Guard is one of my personal favourites by Saxon, taken from their self-titled first album, and the version featured on this set is similar to the new version of Stallions of the Highway, it's just been taken into this century with its production and sound, brilliant to hear that Saxon really haven't, and will not, forget their roots. Forever Free could be argued that their was no real need to re-recorded as the '92 original still sounds fresh as ever now, but this version is just a touch more energetic and powerful, a great ode to the road! The new version of Just Let Me Rock here is brilliant. I love Crusader album, but I will admit that the production can be a little bit iffy here and there with it, and this song really suffers out of all of that album's songs, however, on this version, the production is basically stripped down to the basics, resulting in a 2000s sounding classic rock song, brilliant and well worth inclusion. Frozen Rainbow / Rainbow Theme are more personal favourites, once again taken from the first album, and the Acoustic Version featured here is beautiful. The dynamics are different, Biff's vocals come across even more heartfelt and and the musical accompaniment is perfect for the arrangement.If you get the second bonus disc in this set, just remember that this is the Classics Re-Recorded set, that was a bonus disc with Killing Ground back in 2001 and appeared as it's own album with bonus tracks called Heavy Metal Thunder in 2002. This means that I now own this disc three times now, which isn't an issue at all of course, I just know that some people can be particularly anal about stuff like this, so it just needs to be pointed out that's all. (It's a brilliant greatest hits collection of Saxon's hits re-recorded with modern production and guirar sounds - an excellent album if you're a massive Saxon fan and like to hear new spins on the classics, proving although their age has risen, their abilities have not aged.)So in conclusion, this is a 5* album for me. It has a great collection of songs that don't get heard often, and hearing the fresh takes on them be it Orchestral, Acoustic or a re-recording. I would say that this collection is a aimed at standing big fans of Saxon, but I would also say that younger music fans of this century who have not yet discovered Saxon may find this an excellent introduction album, due to the modern hard rock song and the sheer eclectic nature of the tracklisting. (I was lucky, my Dad used to love Saxon, I wanted a good live album as I was getting into music, he recommended The Eagle Has Landed, I was awe-struck and been a massive Saxon fan ever since, collecting every album along the way. Ta Dad.)

It is not unplugged.It is not a symponic piece.It heavy metal Saxon reborn.They got in the studio and they did some tunes again but I have to say that they did better than before. Biff's voice is beyond any doubt a beast.

Average considering the price paid for it . Missing lots of other songs that are on the cd equivalent

Very good. treat yourself.

Always difficult to remake established tracks, but fairly successfully done here. One or two dodgy interludes, but overall pretty good.

Doppio cd assolutamente da avere, i migliori brani di questa band storica riarrangiati con assoluta maestrìa, sorprendente la capacità di questi musicisti nel lavorare anche in acustico. La cosa che ancora di più colpisce è la qualità audio che sono stati capaci di raggiungere, sono stati ad esempio utilizzati dei riverberi che spesso lasciano a bocca aperta, per non parlare della purezza espressa dagli archi e dalle chitarre acustiche. Per quanto mi riguarda raramente ho ascoltato un prodotto hi-fi di questi livelli, una band sicuramente molto sottovalutata rispetto alle altissime capacità espresse nella carriera. Il top dell'ascolto lo si raggiunge con un adeguato lettore cd ed un impianto hi-fi di non da ipermercato. Prodotto da 10 e lode!

LE CANZONI PIU FAMOSE DEI SAXON RISUONATE SEMPRE IN CHIAVE HARD ROCK METALIN UNA NUOVA VERSIONE ANCHE CON L'AIUTO DELL'ORCHESTRA CHE FUNZIONAANCHE SOLO PER QUESTO ALBUM. ANCHE ALTRI GRUPPI DI QUESTO GENERE SI SONO CIMENTATI INQUESTO ESPERIMENTO. E' UN DISCO CHE SI PUO' SENTIRE VOLENTIERI SE PENSIAMOANCHE COSA RIESCONO A FARE DOPO TANTI ANNI DI ONORATA CARRIERA.LUCIO CECCATO

Nouvelle parution en 2013 pour Saxon, après l'album "Sacrifice", avec ce "Unplugged And Strung Up" qui propose des titres enregistrés en versions acoustiques, mais pas uniquement puisqu'il s'y trouve également des morceaux orchestrés ou réenregistrés.Constitué de quatorze pistes "Unplugged And Strung Up" débute avec cinq titres remixés ou réenregistrés, dont "Stallions Of The Highway", "Battle Cry" ou "Forever Free" et "Just Let Me Rock", à la production régénératrice. Les cinq morceaux orchestrés, sans doute à l'aide de samples plus qu'à un véritable orchestre, ont un rendu assez classe avec des effets donnant une ampleur encore plus épique, à des titres qui le valaient bien, "Crusader", "The Eagle Has Landed" et "Call To Arms". Ce sont les dernières pistes qui sont acoustiques dont une ("Iron Wheels") en live, et un "Coming Home" en mode rock sudiste. Un premier CD cool, qui à défaut de s'avérer complètement indispensable passe très bien, voyant Saxon mixer habilement les styles sur des titres archi-connus ou d'autres plus obscurs, tel un "Frozen Rainbow" de leur premier album. L'édition limitée contient, en plus d'un superbe livret, "Heavy Metal Thunder" un second CD déjà édité en 2002, constitué de treize classiques réenregistrés par le chef Byford et l'orchestre des Saxon.Ce "Unplugged And Strung Up" (album parenthèse) de Saxon, mérite donc une écoute attentive et ne justifie aucunement de finir pendu à son terme.

Das Album ist besser als sein Ruf. Die Orchesterversionen von Crusader, Broken heros und Call to arms sind klasse, das gilt auch für die neu gemixten Forever free und Just let me rock . Der Rest von Cd 1 ist ok, Cd 2 ja bekannt und macht einfach nur Spass. Let'rock.

die meinen Sie müssten alles haben. CD2 hat man schon lange (Heavy Metal Thunder re-recordings) , CD1 braucht musikalisch kein Mensch.Für 5 EURO hat man keine Lücke in der Sammlung , aber leider musikalisch wertlos.

Este álbum es genial, se lo recomiendo a todo el mundo, no contiene canciones nuevas pero si modificadas o versionada por ellos mismos y han ganado mucho algunos temas suenan mejor que nunca. les doy un 9'6/10 a este disco.

excelente disco grandes canciones de saxon como quieran que toquen sus canciones,se oyen fenomenales un super disco a todo volumen viva saxon inmortales del heavy metal

This is great. Well worth a tenner. For me it's worth it just for getting the new version of Stallions of the Highway alone, particularly when it takes off from 1min2sec onwards.To point out even if you think you have the 'orchestrated versions' (because they were some on the Sacrifice double CD) I've compared the two over and over and some of these sound slightly different newer 'orchestrated versions' to me. The Orchestrated version of Crusader in particular sounds quite alot better than the orchestrated version that came with the Sacrifice album.The Orchestrated version of The Eagle has Landed works particularly well, makes it something different to the original.Militia Guard appears to be a complete re-recording (although it doesn't make that clear on the listing on the rear) and is fabulously done, so you're getting abit more than it may seem at first glance.Inevitably some versions work better than others, Just let me Rock was pretty bad originally and doesn't get any better no matter how it's re-recorded!, but others may have their own likes and dislikes.The only real dissapointment is the artwork which is shockingly awful, you would have thought they'd been around long enough to come up with something better than a leaking barn roof!

Excellent

Très bon album. ..une pure merveille. ..grandiose. ..génial. ...saxon..c est du pure bonheur. ..vive saxon....the best. saxon à ne pas esiter