SAXON have put the title track of "Gods Of Thunder" online — the first music from an album Silver Lining Music will release on January 22, 2027. It is the band's twenty-fifth studio record and their first new material since "Hell, Fire And Damnation" in January 2024.
The song takes its subject from Celtic mythology. "'Gods Of Thunder' is a mighty tale of Celtic mythology, packed with the spirit and power of true heavy metal," Biff Byford said. "Turn it up and bang your head!"
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Byford produced the album. Andy Sneap — SAXON's longtime studio hand, and JUDAS PRIEST's touring guitarist — mixed it, the same pairing that made "Hell, Fire And Damnation". Ten songs, built around weight, dynamics and arrangement rather than volume on its own.
What has emerged about the rest of the record confirms that Byford's appetite for history is doing most of the lyrical work. "The Bloody Tower (The Ballad Of Anne Boleyn)" walks through the politics behind Boleyn's execution. "Medusa" turns to myth, carried at speed by a taut, circling riff. "Remember The Alamo" is the album's throwback, moving at the pace SAXON set in the early 1980s. "Temple Of Rock" puts the twin-guitar attack of Doug Scarratt and Brian Tatler out front over the rhythm section of Nigel Glockler and Tim "Nibbs" Carter. The album closes with "MI5", which sets Cold War espionage and the Berlin Wall to a headbanger.
"We had great fun making this album," Byford said. "This is gonna be one to beat!"
That the record exists at all is worth stating plainly. Byford had a heart attack in September 2019 and underwent emergency triple bypass surgery. In August 2024 he had a procedure to treat atrial flutter, an arrhythmia of the heart's upper chambers. In 2025 SAXON cancelled ten summer shows and festival appearances while he recovered from surgery — he first described it as the removal of a small tumour from his prostate, then corrected himself: the diagnosis was bowel cancer. Last October he posted a video saying he had completed his final round of chemotherapy.
The lineup around him has moved too. Paul Quinn stepped back from touring in early 2023, which cost SAXON that April's South American dates and a Monsters Of Rock cruise appearance. DIAMOND HEAD's Brian Tatler took his place on the road and then in the studio, and remains a member of DIAMOND HEAD.
SAXON in 2026 are Byford on vocals, Nigel Glockler on drums, Doug Scarratt and Brian Tatler on guitars, and Tim "Nibbs" Carter on bass. The South Yorkshire band have sold roughly 23 million albums since "Denim And Leather", "Princess Of The Night" and "Wheels Of Steel". Their UK shows are selling fast, a "Gods Of Thunder" world tour is promised, and the album arrives on vinyl variants, CD, bundles and digital.