This is the third of Saxon’s golden period releases. I remember being a tad disappointed at the time mainly due to the title track, which I thought was pandering to the masses somewhat.
The album opens with prime Saxon with Princess Of The Night. An ode to Biff’s love of steam trains and this is what they did the best. A great riff coupled with a very memorable hook and chorus, and a superb groove. Never Surrender follows, a superb simple riff with a few nice key changes, and that huge hands-in-the-air sing-a-long chorus. They manage to combine early Whitesnake with their own sound with Play It Loud, where the lead riff is very Bernie Marsden. The best single on the album is And The Bands Played On, which is a tribute to the first Donnington and what an awesome day that was. Fire In The Sky is my favourite tune on the album. A great fast paced rocker with plenty of guitar histrionics. I still feel as though it’s the weakest of the four, that’s not to say it’s a bad album, it’s not, it’s just that the other three are so good.
9/10 from The Grooveman.
