SAXON Strong arm of the Law is the third album from this English group. Also released in 1980 (Later in the year after “Wheels of Steel”) and this is a huge step forward. As soon as this one starts up you can feel the power behind this band with the first track “Heavy Metal Thunder”. The guitars sound much ballsier for lack of a better word, and Biffs voice is now fully developed and sounding magnificent. You know get the feeling Heavy Metal is becoming a real movement with bands like this using the term in their songs. “To Hell and Back again” keeps the momentum going rather nicely. I feel like this is so far the bands best work at this point. This album feels much more consistent than their last one and far more powerful than their debut.
Things slow down a little with “Strong arm of the Law” but thats cool after the ball tearing first two tracks thats no big issue. This song is actually quite rocking and really cool track. “Taking your chances rocks a little harder than the “Strong Arm…” so all in all you have a pretty solid first side of what would soon be dubbed the New Wave of British Heavy Metal (NWOBHM).
Side 2 kicks in with “20000 ft” with some excellent riffage and guitar solos. This some glorious stuff. I’m of course looking back on this as I didn’t discover metal until almost 8 years after this came out but even with the fact I was spoiled with the biggest and best metal albums the genre had to offer to start off with… i can go back and love this stuff. Imagine being there at the time! The second side of the album is also solid as hell, and all I can say is that I love Biff’s voice and this album is a rocker for all time!
Saxon not only sang about and promoted Heavy Metal they got actual results charting at number 11 on the UK charts with this proving that Heavy Metal was now a commercially viable commodity with Sabbath, Priest, Motorhead and now Saxon making dents in the music charts. Do I like this better than “Wheels of Steel”? Generally I do, but realistically they’re both pretty good efforts, but so far “Motorcycle Man” off their previous record is still my fave song of theirs. I think any preference is down to musical taste more than anything else.
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