Crusader is the sixth studio album by English heavy metal band Saxon, released in February 1984 by Carrere Records. Songs Of the title of the album and the title track, bassist Steve Dawson has said that "In England, there's a paper called the Daily Express, and on the logo at the top of the paper, there's a crusader, and there was a car made by Ford called a Cortina Crusader. That's what started it off. We just liked the name "Crusader". We didn't have any connotations of what it meant as far as history goes, but we just liked the name "Crusader", so we just wrote the lyrics to fit the title, really." Reception Eduardo Rivadavia of AllMusic said that although by the time they released the album, "the band had obviously stopped leading the New Wave of British Heavy Metal with its aggressive, blue-collar biker anthems", the album "as a whole offers a slight improvement over the previous year's Power & the Glory from an overall songwriting perspective". Canadian journalist Martin Popoff considered Saxon's turn to "a low-cal, kinder, gentler metal... a well-conceived experiment" and denied those who called Crusader "a failure" and "a bald-faced commercial maneuver", finding the album "refreshing if more than occasionally flawed." The album reached No. 1 in the metal charts in Sweden, France and Germany. It peaked at #18 in the UK Albums Chart. It also charted in the U.S. Billboard chart. Track listing Personnel Biff Byford – vocals Graham Oliver – guitar Paul Quinn – guitar Steve Dawson – bass guitar Nigel Glockler – drums Production Kevin Beamish – producer, engineer Bruce Barris – engineer Sound City Studios, Los Angeles, California – recording location George Marino – mastering at Sterling Sound, New York City Paul R. Gregory – artwork Nigel Thomas – management Charts Album Singles References Saxon (band) albums 1984 albums Carrere Records albums Albums produced by Kevin Beamish Albums recorded at Sound City Studios