Biff Byford

THE SCINTILLA PROJECT - The Hybrid
Album Reviews

THE SCINTILLA PROJECT – The Hybrid

September 2, 2014 Dan Skiba

Scintilla is a science fiction thriller dealing with an elite team of mercenaries hired to carry out a covert operation to secure genetically engineered human and alien specimens deep within a former Soviet state that hit the silver screens in the spring of 2014. Saxon’s Biff Byford was introduced to the movie’s producer, Lionel Hicks, and they agreed a concept album inspired by the events of the movie was in order. Biff gave drum kit duties to Hicks, and was also joined by Anthony Ritchie (bass) and Andy Sneap (guitars) to form The Scintilla Project, and their album follows suit by being entitled The Hybrid. Byford’s voice of course sounds very familiar on this album, but The Hybrid being a conceptual piece comes across sounding very Epic in a Scandinavian-Viking way.  The musicianship is solid, but the lyrics and vocal style of Byford is very reflective and subdued … the parallels to Saxon are few overall, which makes this both an enjoyable album and a “strange” change-up for Byford at the same time. The Hybrid is an interesting listen and the novelty is worth checking out, but this likely won’t be an album that you’ll revisit time and time again.

VARIOUS ARTISTS - Ronnie James Dio - This Is Your Life
Album Reviews

VARIOUS ARTISTS – Ronnie James Dio – This Is Your Life

April 28, 2014 Mick Burgess

The term “legend” is one that gets bandied around far too frequently these days and in most cases to those who barely deserve such lofty acclaim. Yet with an incredible career spanning from 1957 to his untimely passing in 2010 taking in diamond encrusted classic releases by Rainbow, Black Sabbath and his own band Dio, Ronnie James Dio is one of the few who truly deserves such an accolade. It is only fitting that a tribute to the timeless music of Dio is delivered by some of the biggest names in Rock including members of Deep Purple, Rainbow, Judas Priest, Metallica, Scorpions, Saxon, Slipknot, Anthrax and Motorhead amongst a stellar star studded cast and a symbol of the high esteem that he is held in by his peers. Overall the standard of covers is uniformly high with Klaus Meine’s wonderfully moving take on “Temple of the King” arguably taking top spot while Metallica’s rampaging “Ronnie Rising Medley” which takes in “A Light in the Black”/Tarot Woman”/Stargazer”/Kill The King” sees Metallica delivering their finest performance in many a year. Anthrax hammer home a thunderous “Neon Nights” with Joey Belladonna giving the performance of his life and Biff Byford and Lemmy deliver a lively “Starstruck”. The ladies of Rock come to pay their homage too and stand shoulder to shoulder with the men as Lzzy Hale roars through “Straight Through The Heart” and Doro Pesch performs a dramatic “Egypt (The Chains Are On)”. Impressive stuff. Even Jack Black, a devoted long time Dio fans pays tribute with a fine “The Last in Line” and who would have expected him to put on such a convincing performance? Glenn Hughes on “Catch The Rainbow” delivers a truly poignant and beautiful homage to his departed friend evoking memories of his tearful, moving tribute at his …READ MORE

Interviews

Interview with Biff Byford (Saxon)

September 9, 2008 Mick Burgess

Metal Express Radio recently caught up with Saxon’s legendary singer Biff Byford to chat about Saxon’s triumphant appearance at Donnington and their forthcoming shows with Motörhead. First of all, congratulations on your recent appearance at Download Festival at Donington this year. By all accounts you were the band of the festival. How did you enjoy yourself? Yeah, they do say that. It was pretty good actually; it seemed to be one of those “legendary” gigs that if you were there you were one of the special few. It was amazing as the tent where we played held 5,000 but they had to take the sides off. It was great actually and it was great coming back to Donnington and getting a reception like that. That was your third appearance at Donnington having played there the last time in 1982 and of course the very first Donnington in 1980. That must feel like a life time away now? We had to play it again as we’ve spent all the money we made from the first one!! It’s good really, we’ve got a lot of people helping us now; we’ve a new agent and management and they’re all getting behind us so it’s all pretty good. I seem to recall Rainbow’s show being broadcast on TV, was your performance taped? Will it be released someday? I’ve no idea. I think EMI has one of the recordings but I don’t know what’s happened to it or if they’ll ever put it out. It was Donnington that inspired your song “And The Bands Played On” wasn’t it? That’s right. We were keeping people guessing whether we were going to play it or not. We’ve also just played it at our recent show in Bilbao. With Kiss, Judas Priest and Motörhead also playing Donnington, that …READ MORE