Wheels of Steel-Saxon

 So today I'm reviewing some classic New Wave of British Heavy Metal and today's band is Saxon one of the biggest and hardest bands of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal. The album features great guitar sound, has a lot of musical depth for that matter, covers a lot of good silly lyrical themes and features great vocals. Saxon was one of the loudest bands of the year on this classic heavy metal album. There are explosive chords and explosive flashy solos. The album explodes off with a riff driven Motorcycle Man and keeps on rocking for the next 40 minutes of pure dark heavy metal. There are some Saxon classics on this album like Stand and Be Counted, which features one of the greatest metal riffs ever. The guitars are very loud and create amazing riffs on this awesome New Wave of British Heavy Metal album.

The songs are more riff driven than a lot of tracks I could name and they are super powered. There are some amazing solos which are typically played over the power chord riffs that defines the song. The band subscribes to the 2 riff theory which makes me happy. The guitars on this album give a really good loud and awesome sound. The bass has lot of opportunities to shine which is odd on an album which features 2 awesome guitarists. There are some clear and excellent bass riffs driving through the music, in particular the track 747 (Strangers In the Night) has a really good and catchy bass fill. The drums are pure New Wave of British Heavy Metal steady and strong and helping to drive the music along. When the drummer really gets a chance to let loose the stick work is pretty amazing to listen to.

The lyrics are good and cover a few topics. As a whole though they are rather silly and are just there to provide atmosphere the lyrics are not really about anything. The lyrics have been called down to earth at times but often they simply don't accomplish anything. Not emotion not fantasy not love, sometimes they talk about cars but thats kind of it. The lyrics are good at providing an atmosphere to the music so I like them for that. This is a fun thing to listen to if you're a biker. The voice of Biff Bryson is really good and serves to add a good atmosphere to the album. He has some of the best vocal cords in NWOBHM.

Overall this is a good album with nice guitarists, good bass fills nice drumming and great singing. The guitar is very riff driven and allows for some nice bass fills to make the music sound good, the drumming is a cut above average. The lyrics are both rather silly and down to earth. They don't accomplish anything but they are fun to listen to and they add atmosphere. The singing from Bryson is awesome and he is one of the greats in NWOBHM. This is a good album for anybody into metal specifically the New Wave of British Heavy Metal. This is a hard rocking jamming riff driven album that has a wide appeal.

OVERALL 8.5/10

Wheels of Steel