SAXON announces March 2027 European leg of 'Gods Of Thunder' tour
26-07-2026
British heavy metal legends SAXON have announced the second European leg of the “Gods Of Thunder” world tour. Adding to the excitement, SAXON will revive its legendary 30-foot mechanized Eagle for fans attending the Brussels, Zurich, Cologne and Tilburg dates.
Originally constructed in the early 1980s as SAXON prepared to tour the band’s seminal album “Denim And Leather”, the iconic Eagle was built by Midlands-based company LSD using airport runway landing lights.
Comments SAXON frontman Biff Byford: “We’re bringing the ‘Gods Of Thunder’ tour across to Europe. It’s gonna be awesome! Can’t wait to open the heavens and bring on the metal.”
Tickets will be available to purchase as of Tuesday, October 27 for Italian shows, Wednesday, October 28 for Zurich, Thursday, October 29 for Oslo and Friday, October 30 for all other shows.
Tour dates:
March 01 – Ancienne Belgique Bruxelles, Belgium *
March 03 – Grosse Freiheit 36 Hamburg, Germany
March 05 – Amager Bio København, Denmark
March 06 – House Of Culture Helsinki, Finland
March 08 – Sentrum Scene Oslo, Norway
March 10 – Central Erfurt | B2B Erfurt, Germany
March 11 – Archa+ Praha, Czechia
March 12 – Barba Negra Budapest, Hungary
March 14 – Löwensaal Nuremberg, Germany
March 16 – Im Wizemann Stuttgart, Germany
March 17 – Volkshaus Zürich, Switzerland *
March 18 – Alcatraz Milano, Italy
March 19 – Viper Theatre Firenze, Italy
March 20 – Kesselhaus München, Germany
March 22 – Huxleys Neue Welt Berlin, Germany
March 23 – E-Werk Köln, Germany *
March 24 – Poppodium 013 Tilburg, Netherlands *
* with Castles & Eagles production
Last June, SAXON guitarist Brian Tatler confirmed to Neil Jones of TotalRock at Maid Of Stone festival at Mote Park, Maidstone, Kent, United Kingdom that the band’s upcoming studio album will be called “Gods Of Thunder”.
A short video of Tatler revealing the new SAXON LP title to Jones can be seen below.
On January 27, 2026, SAXON frontman Biff Byford released a video message via social media in which he said: “We’ve finished the album now. (Longtime SAXON producer and JUDAS PRIEST touring guitarist) Andy Sneap‘s finished mixing the album, the new album. So, you’re gonna be hearing about that over the summer, I’m sure.”
Byford also offered an update on his fight against bowel cancer, saying: “I’ve got some new news on the operation. (It’s been) six months now since my cancer operation, and I had a CT scan and everything is clear. So that’s good news after the op, so there’s nothing come back. So that’s really good.”
SAXON‘s upcoming LP will be the follow-up to “Hell, Fire And Damnation”, which came out in January 2024 via Silver Lining Music.
Last October Biff Byford has shared a new video message in which he offered an update on his battle with bowel cancer. He said: ”Hi, it’s Biff here from SAXON. I wanna give you an update. So, yeah, I’ve done the chemo now. And, yeah, I’m gonna be getting fit now, ride the bike. I’m doing some vocals for the new album and, yeah, rehearsing for the (SAXON U.K. tour), which starts in Belfast. — I think it’s on the beginning of November, 3rd or the 4th of November. We’re gonna be doing the ‘Wheels Of Steel’ album complete, obviously, in the set, with a lot of other songs as well, obviously. Udo (Dirkschneider and his band DIRKSCHNEIDER) is gonna be doing ‘Balls To The Wall’, the ACCEPT album, a brilliant album. So he’s gonna be doing that completely. I think TYGERS OF PAN TANG in Newcastle are gonna do a special setlist. And we’ve got a new band called UNTAMED SILENCE with us on two shows, Manchester and Sheffield. So, yep, it’s gonna be great. We’re looking forward to it, and we’ll see everybody there. A few tickets left in some shows, so get your tickets bought, and come on. Peace and quiet.”
Watch the previously released “1066” below.
Saxon’s Biff Byford says – “A totally British themed song, the massive invasion… In fact, it was the end of the Saxons really, so I’m singing about the demise of the Saxons. I did a song with Amon Amarth a while back called ‘Saxons and Vikings’ which was about the end of the Vikings in England and the rise of the Saxons, so I thought I may as well do a song about six-seven hundred years later when William the Conqueror comes over and nobbles the Saxons.
We’ll be playing the song on the Hell, Fire And Steel tour next month, which is gonna be fantastic.”
The song was written by and credited to the band’s member Peter Byford and Brian Tatler.
Watch the previously released official lyric video for “Witches Of Salem” below.
“Hell, Fire And Damnation” is an album which sees SAXON investigate all areas of history and mystery amidst ten of their most confident and thunderopowerful songs yet. In “Witches Of Salem”, lead singer and founding member Biff Byford explores the unjust condemnation of the women victimized at the Salem witch trials and the sheer bigotry and mass hysteria prevalent at the time.
“This is an American story, but the witch trials started in Scotland, spread into England and across the sea to the colonies in America. Those poor women in Salem,” explains Byford, “they weren’t ‘witches’ more than just unfortunate women, really, blamed for everybody’s ailments… whether your horse died, or the milk went sour, they blamed women. Maybe because they were jealous of them, or maybe it was because some guy had made some advances and she’d told him to piss off, so he’d declare that she was a witch. And once a person was declared a witch, I don’t think there was any way back from that; very few of them were found innocent.”
Produced by Andy Sneap (JUDAS PRIEST, EXODUS, ACCEPT) and Byford, with Sneap mixing and mastering, “Hell, Fire And Damnation” strides the perfect line between confident, current power, and gloriously irreverent flexing of the New Wave Of British Heavy Metal muscle which SAXON co-created.
“I think this album’s one of the best he’s done sound-wise, and he’s done a lot of albums,” Biff declared. “It has a really raw, vibrant sound… if you compress the total time making this album, it was four weeks tops… you can hear everything brilliantly, nothing’s overcomplicated, nothing’s over compressed. The guitar sounds are fucking immense, they’re just great, raw guitar sounds. And we haven’t done a lot of overdubbing on there, it’s just playing. I really, really like it.
Social media