The fourth album within about 2 years and they are still riding the wave. An impressive level of quality in such a short timespan ... basically 4 classic metal albums in a row.
The proto-power metal on the previous album is somewhat toned down here, they seem to be going for a more "radio-friendly" tone, though there is still a lot of hard-hitting metal here. The mid-tempo tracks are less impressive than earlier and the harder stuff does not have quite the same edge to it as on the previous album. With one exception. "And The Bands Played On" is a rock'n'metal masterpiece imo. It has a fantastic groovy rhythm section, actually clearly better produced than the rest of the tracks for some reason. The melody and chorus is stellar and everything just gels into one of my all-time favourite metal tracks. And absolutely perfect composition.
Overall this is not quite as strong as "Strong Arm Of The Law", but it is damn close. Tracks like "Princess Of The Night", "Never Surrender" and "Denim And Leather" are all brilliant, classic tracks. For a band basically pressed by the record company to ditch out a couple of albums a year, the quality level for the first 3-4 albums is stellar. Traditionally albums 2-4 has been considered the peak Saxon "trilogy", from here on things start to change. I would add the debut album into a quad set of classic Saxon. This is why they are what they are.
- "Princess of the Night"
- "Never Surrender"
- "Out of Control"
- "Rough and Ready"
- "Play It Loud"
- "And the Bands Played On"
- "Midnight Rider"
- "Fire in the Sky"
- "Denim and Leather"