New wave of British heavy metal, Saxon, performs with Uriah Heep in Brown County

In the beginning, heavy metal rocker band Saxon outpaced even the legendary Iron Maiden and Def Leppard. Fans, who will remember Saxon’s 1980 “Wheels of Steel,” can see Saxon May 21 at the Brown County Music Center, where they’ll share the limelight with iconic prog rockers Uriah Heep.

The vanguard of the “new wave of British heavy metal,” Saxon snagged eight U.K. Top 40 albums in the 1980s, including four U.K. Top 10 albums and a couple of Top 5 albums. They’re an English heavy metal band begun in 1977, and they’ve produced hit singles on the U.K. Singles Chart as well as triumphs throughout Europe, Japan and the U.S.

In the ’80s Saxon was among Europe’s most eminent metal acts. Their continuous touring has helped them sell more than 23 million records.

New wave of British heavy metal

The term “new wave of British heavy metal” comes in part from the genre’s having dipped into 1970s’ heavy metal, zapping it with punk rock’s verve to make music that is fast and fuming.

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Later came the okay-we’ll-just-do-it-ourselves approach by metal bands, resulting in recordings that sounded raw and were self produced. Independent record labels burgeoned. Songs “talked” about escapism, fantasy, horror, mythology and how hard rockers lived their real lives.

Riffs got twisted and otherwise distorted. Rockers screamed and stomped. Fans roared in validation.

From Coast to S.O.B to Son of a Bitch to Saxon

Punk evolved right out of the R & R of the ’50s and the garage rock of the following decade. The timing was good for a song-filled bass player named Peter “Biff” Byford and Paul Quinn, who played guitar. With drummer Al Dodd, they formed the U.K. rock band Coast in 1973, and Byford played bass and sang. They landed on the name Coast after Trapeze’s 1972 song “Coast to Coast.”