Saxon
Strong Arm Of The Law

THE REVIEW

Heavy Metal, a word that can mean many things, passion, genius, pogo, mosh, etc...

But only one distinguishes it and that's HARDNESS.

Yes, hard as a rock that in 1980 hits your gut with "Strong Arm Of The Law" by Saxon, a still partially inexperienced group on their third release after the excellent "Wheels Of Steel" which was already oriented towards the sound that would come to define the band even today after many years. It starts with a real "Kick In The Ass" as Biff Byfford shouts at the beginning, we're talking about the classic "Heavy Metal Thunder", fast, rhythmic, aggressive. At first, one might say "Nothing new," but that's not the case; the album has a certain heaviness that the Priest would adopt two years later with "Screaming For Vengeance." The album has a certain epicness that the Maiden would only adopt six years later with "Somewhere In Time." In short, here Heavy Metal comes in all shapes and sizes.

But let's move on to the second track "To Hell And Back Again". As already mentioned, this track has an Epic atmosphere that years earlier was adopted by Rainbow. The track is a fast ride with a beautiful chorus and a very powerful Byfford. One of the highest points is reached with the title track, which has certain Blues influences that blend wonderfully with the Heavy, Biff's voice here is very powerful and expressive, with a very nice guitar solo from the guitarist, a great piece. The pace of the album doesn't slow down with the beautiful "Taking Your Chances", which, however, has the flaw of not having anything different from the first two tracks.

Particular (and therefore beautiful) is track 5, the part of the verses sung and the solo refer to a strange Country-Metal, instead the chorus is one of those classic Heavy Metal, a more than experimental track that personally left a mark on me. The sixth track is solid and heavy Metal, but "Hungry Years" is, in my opinion, a song that adds nothing and takes nothing away from the album. "Sixth Form Girls" presents us with a stratospheric Biff behind the microphone supporting this obsessive riff and this amazing rhythm that makes this one of the best pieces of the album. I would have something to criticize in the chorus, which for me is a bit too out of context compared to the song, but besides that, every single song on this album forces us to associate an adjective to the name Saxon, G R E A T.

It closes with another masterpiece of the album "Dallas 1 P.M.". The solid rhythm and great riff introduce us to what might be the best performance of Byfford in this album. The lyrics are very beautiful and are one of the first truly "Engaged" by Saxon because it talks about the death of John F. Kennedy, which indeed happened in Dallas. I consider this album one of the most influential for Heavy Metal and, in my opinion, lays the foundation for what the Heavy Metal of the eighties would be.