Crusader by Saxon

Crusader, Saxon's sixth studio album, hit the racks on Carrère on 30 January 1984, and its title came from nowhere more mythic than the knight on the Daily Express masthead and a Ford Cortina Crusader: bassist Steve Dawson admitted the Barnsley band simply liked the word and wrote the lyrics to fit it. Kevin Beamish produced, and he gives the record a broad, buffed sheen that tells you exactly where Saxon were aiming.

Biff Byford still bellows up front, Graham Oliver and Paul Quinn still load up the guitars, and Nigel Glockler drives it home, but this is traditional heavy metal with the edges rounded off for a bigger crowd. AllMusic's Eduardo Rivadavia heard a band no longer out in front of the new wave of British heavy metal, though he rated the songwriting a notch above Power & the Glory; Martin Popoff called the gentler turn a smart experiment rather than a cash grab. "Just Let Me Rock" says the rest.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.