The story of 20 polls on the Hom: Saxon studio albums 101

Hey There:

The first poll was on 10/22/2014 and the last one pretty much is a done deal as off today, 3/27/2015.  There were 20 polls, one for each of Saxon's studio albums released from 1979 to 2013.  There were 4741 total views made of all 20 threads for an average of 237 views. The thread for "Innocence Is No Excuse" had 517 views. The thread for the debut self titled was a distant second with 321 views. The thread for "Dogs Of War" was last with 153 views.

There were 259 total responses posted in the polls for an average of 12.95 replies. Again, the thread for "Innocence Is No Excuse" was way ahead of both the average and the closest competitors. Threads for "Power & The Glory", "Rock The Nations", and "Into The Labyrinth" all had 18 replies. The threads for the debut "S/T" and "Strong Arm Of The Law" both had 17 replies. In last place was the thread for "Dogs Of War" with 5 replies. The thread for "Destiny" was only 7 views total.  The threads for both "Metalhead" and "Killing Ground" were just one from the bottom with 8 replies each.

The total number of votes cast was 217 for an average of 10.805 votes.
The thread for "Power & The Glory" was tops with 21 votes total.  "Strong Arm Of The Law" was next with 19 votes cast. "Wheels Of Steel". "Saxon", "Denim And Leather", and "Crusader" had 17 votes. 16 votes were made in the threads for "Rock The Nations" and "Call To Arms".  "Forever Free" and "Dogs Of War" were dead last with 9 votes each, followed by "Solid Ball Of Rock" 10 votes, and "Destiny" with 11.

The song that got the most votes was "Crusader" with 12. "Power & The Glory" got 11.  Both "747(Strangers Of The Night)" and "Battle Cry" had 9, and "Ride Like The Wind" got 8 votes.  

Now album to album/poll by poll...

Saxon- 17 votes  14 replies  "Stallions Of The Highway" 5 votes "Frozen Rainbow" 4 votes.

Wheels Of Steel- 17 votes 16 replies  "747(Strangers Of The Night)" 9 votes "Motorcycle Man" 4 votes.

Strong Arm Of The Law- 19 votes 17 replies "Heavy Metal Thunder" 7 votes "Dallas 1PM" 6 votes.

Denim and Leather- 17 votes 15 replies "Princess Of The Night" 7 votes  "Denim And Leather" 6 votes.

Power & The Glory  21 votes 18 replies  "Power & The Glory" 11 votes "This Town Rocks" 4 votes.

Crusader- 17 votes 13 replies "Crusader" 12 votes "Just Let Me Rock" 3 votes.  The most one sided of all polls.

Innocence Is No Excuse- 14 votes 32 views  "Call Of The Wild" 3 votes "Rock n Roll Gypsy" 3 votes.  2 songs got 2 votes, 4 songs got 1 vote and both "Devil Rides Out" and "Give It All You Got" got 0 votes.
This was the second closest poll overall and one of the only ones with almost every song getting a vote.

Destiny- 11 votes 7 replies  "Ride Like The Wind" 8 votes.

Rock The Nations- 16 votes 18 replies "Battle Cry" 9 votes "Rock The Nations" and "Party Till You Puke" both got 2 votes.

Solid Ball Of Rock-10 votes 10 replies "Solid Ball Of Rock" 3 votes "Baptism Of Fire", "I'm On Fire", and "Crash Drive" all had 2 votes.

Forever Free- 9 votes 10 replies  "Forever Free" 5 votes  "Hole In The Sky" 3 votes.

Dogs Of War- 9 votes 5 replies "Big Twin Rolling(Coming Home)" 3 votes. "Great White Buffalo: and "Walking Through Tokyo" both had 2 votes.

Unleash The Beast- 12 votes 9 replies  "Blood Letter" 6 votes "Thin Red Line" 3 votes

Metalhead- 12 votes 9 replies "Conquistador" 5 votes "Metalhead" 3 votes

Killing Ground- 10 votes 8 replies "Comin Home" and "Dragon's Lair" both had 3  votes "Killing Ground" had 2 votes

Lionheart- 13 votes 10 replies "Witchfinder General" and "Man & Machine" 4 votes  "Lionheart" and  "Beyond The Grave" 2 votes.
There were 5 songs with 1 vote.  Another poll with a varied result.

The Inner Sanctum- 15 votes 13 replies  "State Of Grace" and "Let Me Feel Your Power" 3 votes "Need For Speed", "Going Nowhere Fast", and "Attila The Hun" 2 votes  Three songs got 1 vote and "Red Star Falling" got 0.  This was theclosest poll of all and the song that didn't get a vote is better than songs that won on other polls (IMHO)

Into The Labyrinth- 12 votes 18 replies "Live to Rock" 5 votes  "Demon Sweeny Todd" and "Batalions Of Steel" 2 votes.

Call To Arms- 16 votes 11 replies "Hammer Of The Gods" 5 votes and "Mists Of Avalon" 3 votes

Sacrifice- 12 votes 10 replies "Warriors Of The Road" and "Night Of The Wolf" both 3 votes.

There we go folks, what participating members of HoM had to say about Saxon's 20 studio albums.  The number of people involved either means that Saxon isn't as interesting as talking crap about Geoff Tate  or there are a lot of board members who have me on ignore and don't see my threads.  Interesting note- the thread with the most replies and comments was the one with drama in it.  A certain member and myself had a nice enough dialogue going on until his usual lack of reading comprehension caused a case of "butt-hurt-ness" to make them do the react thing instead of respond.  Oh well, I had fun doing the polls and crunching the data.  Now it's on to another band

Nice work. I think this is a cool idea because it makes me revisit some albums that I have forgotten about.

Any ideas on what band you are going to do next?

Interesting. I voted/replied to albums that I had. Unfortunately, no later ones.

Same here. I only voted for albums I knew. Which is only 2.

Quote :

The number of people involved either means that Saxon isn't as interesting as talking crap about Geoff Tate  or there are a lot of board members who have me on ignore and don't see my threads.

It was nothin' personal. I just don't own enough albums by/know enough about Saxon to take part.

Same here.  Uncle Saxon himself made me a Saxon comp a few years back and I had to tell him I was thoroughly unimpressed.  I just don't find the band's music very interesting.

The poll cumulative numbers concept is a cool idea though.

I have Saxon thru Crusader.

Looking forward to the next set of polls.

James B. wrote:

The Inner Sanctum- 15 votes 13 replies  "State Of Grace" and "Let Me Feel Your Power" 3 votes "Need For Speed", "Going Nowhere Fast", and "Attila The Hun" 2 votes  Three songs got 1 vote and "Red Star Falling" got 0.  This was theclosest poll of all and the song that didn't get a vote is better than songs that won on other polls (IMHO)

I've been listening to "Red Star Falling" a lot since this poll. I almost voted for it, but went with "State Of Grace" because it was so catchy and hooked me right away, but "Red Star Falling" was the one that stuck with me. I wish I had voted for it now. Oh well.

I was going to start a Running Wild poll after this one is finished, unless you want to start a new one for another band.

Thanks for the work, James, I enjoyed the polls.

Reading all the various comments - and song picks -
over the weeks - months - damn time zooms fast -
got my juices flowing - purchased Call To Arms -
and my next purchases will come from help of these polls -
20 studio CDs - incredible.
Not sure about all the legal hassles the band dealt with -
and what band mates were replaced - drummer was in hospital -
but they stayed very true to - blasting it out !

chewie wrote:

Interesting. I voted/replied to albums that I had. Unfortunately, no later ones.

Same here, once we were past The Power & the Glory I was pretty lost. Nice poll(s) though.

Yer my hero, James! Really good job and it was fun as hell to sit back and watch. I voted on every album, but kept my arrogant [and all-knowing, ha!] opinions to myself. Thanks for the efforts brother!

80s Metal Lady wrote:

I was going to start a Running Wild poll after this one is finished, unless you want to start a new one for another band.

Go for what you know

I have some holes in that bands discography and it would be really cool to have a fire lit under the ol' butt to remedy that.

James B. wrote:

80s Metal Lady wrote:

I was going to start a Running Wild poll after this one is finished, unless you want to start a new one for another band.

Go for what you know

I have some holes in that bands discography and it would be really cool to have a fire lit under the ol' butt to remedy that.

I listened to a lot of Saxon albums and found new favorite songs because of your polls. It's so nice these days to have Spotify and YouTube with almost any album available to stream. Back in the day, you'd have to buy an album or maybe, if lucky, borrow it from a friend to hear it. You had to be selective or go broke. It's easy now to listen to entire discographies of bands.

I'll get the tracks from Gates To Purgatory ready to post in a poll tomorrow.

I have all the albums, but didn't reply to all the polls. I just couldn't decide on a favourite.

Dark Horseman wrote:

Thanks for the work, James, I enjoyed the polls.

Me too! Thank you!

Excellent work, James! Imho, Saxon is one of the best bands ever and certainly deserve the attention and accolades given by those at HoM. As for your observation about the drama getting more attention than just discussing fave songs, I agree. I think it's just our nature to naturally gravitate towards the drama in life and art. I come to the HoM to mostly read and learn and discuss and appreciate music and artists; but don't post as much as I would like too. Sometimes I don't have anything great to add to a discussion other than liking or not liking something and sometimes it's simply echoing the sentiments of the other members. I find it easier to simply write in longhand than to type so my responses aren't usually very long. I wish that we were all just sitting around a bar with our favorite beer in front of us and some Sabbath or AC/DC playing in the background while we all talked openly about our passion for Hard Rock and Heavy Metal, but for now this medium will have to do.

METAL UP! I fear only Sideshow and DeathCult will get the reference...

James B. wrote:

Interesting note- the thread with the most replies and comments was the one with drama in it.  A certain member and myself had a nice enough dialogue going on until his usual lack of reading comprehension caused a case of "butt-hurt-ness" to make them do the react thing instead of respond.

Nah, I wasn't put off one bit. I was curious to ask why every Saxon album ever made had to have a poll, which I critiqued as pointless. If that's "butthurt" to you, then it seems like you're the one who has some reading comprehension issues.

Polls suck when they don't have any real discussions. A brief sentence or a string of emoticons never constitute that sort of thing. It's so easy to vote for just about anything on online polls. You could make as many fake accounts as possible to rig the results. Boring.

What's the point of all that? Let's just pick and not really elaborate on our reasons for our picks. Let's not make threads more interesting.

From what I've experienced, most of the active "discussions" here are conflicts among members. I think putting more effort into explaining your opinions can make threads more dynamic and genuine. The lack of interesting discussions is the reason why I don't come on here as often. Many threads posted on here have potential, but lose momentum when most of the replies that I see are "MEGADETH!!!1111 ".

I'm not saying that there aren't good, quality discussions on here. It's more a concern that most of the members here who post don't really add much to their posts. List threads are a major issue that I see here. Like I said, lack of dynamic discussions is the real issue.

That's why the discussion that you and I had was the only actual discussion conceived. I know that forums are generally a place for networking among like-minded individuals, but a little more effort can go a long way. For example, that Running Wild thread that 80s Metal Lady posted was a good start. If more replies could go up to a paragraph, then it would be a lot more interesting to come back to.

Hey Painkiller:

YEARS before you showed up here there were over 100 band discography's discussed in that section of the board. The server just up and dumped them. There was a lot of time and effort put into them by dozens of members. We even had a waiting list for members to take a turn when a band was completed. (Imagine that) Sorry you were not around to enjoy them.

I'm just having a little bit of fun with the polls to pass some time.

There is something called common sense and maybe there is a reason why this small community doesn't discuss things the way you say we should do it, and that is.............we already have....and most feel there isn't much more to say about most things that have not been done and done and done and done over and over again. See that....it's called a pattern.

Like I said, sorry you missed it and thanks for telling us the error of our ways. I am going to sleep really great tonight.

Fair enough. I wasn't a member of this place many years ago. I'm sorry for sounding uncaring or forceful.

That does suck about this forum losing so much content, but I've also experienced that sort of thing on my own forum. I simply refused to accept it and move on, and I'm now at a point where I don't even miss the old community. The ones who still wanted to be a part of it again re-registered. The good thing is that I had all the posts backed up, and will continue to maintain it better.

Even if you don't think we will get to the level of quality of the old community, one high-quality thread is a lot better than a hundreds-by-the-minute assault of "LOL" posts.

Painkiller wrote:

Even if you don't think we will get to the level of quality of the old community, one high-quality thread is a lot better than a hundreds-by-the-minute assault of "LOL" posts.

One man's quality is another man's trash and visa/versa.

You make a more lasting impression on people by making them laugh than trying to impress them with knowledge they already have or much less knowledge you assume to possess.

In time, one thread that has a lot of useful information will have a bigger impact than a trashy one.

Just how I see it.

Painkiller wrote:

In time, one thread that has a lot of useful information will have a bigger impact than a trashy one.

Just how I see it.

I agree but we had those threads long before you showed up. Good luck getting anybody to bring their toys over to your house to play to play by your rules. Noble on paper, but very naïve in reality.

James B. wrote:

I agree but we had those threads long before you showed up.  Good luck getting anybody to bring their toys over to your house to play to play by your rules.  Noble on paper, but very naïve in reality.

We can get a good start on that when you start taking discussions more seriously. Until then, your posts have no bearing on me.