''Wheels of Steel'' is the second studio album by English heavy metal band

Saxon The Saxons ( la, Saxones, german: Sachsen, ang, Seaxan, osx, Sahson, nds, Sassen, nl, Saksen) were a group of Germanic * * * * peoples whose name was given in the early Middle Ages to a large country (Old Saxony, la, Saxonia) near the Nor ...

. Released in 1980, it was their first album to enter the

UK Albums Chart The Official Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales and (from March 2015) audio streaming in the United Kingdom. It was published for the first time on 22 July 1956 and is compiled every week by the Official Charts C ...

, peaking at number 5, and is their highest-charting album in the UK Albums Chart to date. The album eventually went on to achieve gold status in the UK.

Song notes

"747 (Strangers in the Night)" is about a power cut that forced planes in New York to remain in ascent in 1965 with the

power outage A power outage (also called a powercut, a power out, a power failure, a power blackout, a power loss, or a blackout) is the loss of the electrical power network supply to an end user. There are many causes of power failures in an electricit ...

provoking a Scandinavian flight to detour to Kennedy airport in the dark. The title track is featured in the video games '' Grand Theft Auto: Episodes from Liberty City'' ('' Grand Theft Auto: The Lost and Damned'' and '' Grand Theft Auto: The Ballad of Gay Tony'') and ''

Brütal Legend ''Brütal Legend'' is an action-adventure video game with real-time strategy game elements created by Double Fine and published by Electronic Arts for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. The game was released during October 2009 in North America, E ...

''. It has also been covered by

L.A. Guns L.A. Guns is an American glam metal band from Los Angeles, formed in 1983. The lineup currently consists of Tracii Guns (lead guitar), Phil Lewis (lead vocals), Ace Von Johnson (rhythm guitar, backing vocals), Johnny Martin (bass, backing vo ...

on their album ''

Rips the Covers Off ''Rips the Covers Off'', some copies of which are titled ''Rips Off the Covers'', is an album by Phil Lewis's version of L.A. Guns, their first with guitarist Stacey Blades. The studio portion of the album (songs 1-11) consists of cover son ...

'' and bears a strong resemblance to the outro riff of "Rock 'n' Roll Doctor" by

Black Sabbath Black Sabbath were an English rock music, rock band formed in Birmingham in 1968 by guitarist Tony Iommi, drummer Bill Ward (musician), Bill Ward, bassist Geezer Butler and vocalist Ozzy Osbourne. They are often cited as pioneers of heavy met ...

, although according to guitarist Graham Oliver the song was actually inspired by the

Ted Nugent Theodore Anthony Nugent (; born December 13, 1948) is an American rock musician and activist. He initially gained fame as the lead guitarist and occasional lead vocalist of The Amboy Dukes, a band formed in 1963 that played psychedelic rock an ...

song "

Cat Scratch Fever ''Cat Scratch Fever'' is the third studio album by American rock musician Ted Nugent. It was released on May 13, 1977, by Epic Records. Vocalist Derek St. Holmes, who had left the band during the recording of the album ''Free-for-All'', had com ...

Reception

The album received very positive reviews from critics and is today regarded as a classic, genre-defining metal album. Eduardo Rivadavia of

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...

lists the album as "topping the heap of essential Saxon albums, pretty much hand in hand with its immediate successors, ''Strong Arm of the Law'' and ''Denim and Leather'', effectively setting the template for the band's most successful efforts." Canadian reviewer

Martin Popoff Martin Popoff (born April 28, 1963) is a Canadian music journalist, critic and author. He is mainly known for writing about the genre of heavy metal music. The senior editor and co-founder of ''Brave Words & Bloody Knuckles'', he has additionally ...

regards ''Wheels of Steel'' as a "qualified classic" and "one of really two or three of (NWOBHM's) building blocks;" it is "a record on a mission, willing to take responsibility as a spokesvinyl for legions of English punters with a thirst for regular metal guys".

Sputnikmusic Sputnikmusic is an American music community website offering music criticism and music news alongside features commonly associated with wiki-style websites. The format of the website is unusual in that it includes both professional and amateur c ...

's Mike Stagno praises "the solid, consistent rhythms that produce the riffy, yet accessible tunes" and Biff Byford's "powerful singing", which make ''Wheels of Steel'' "perhaps not one of metal's best albums," but "still a very worthwhile album."

Track listing

*2009 remaster bonus tracks 13-17 recorded Live at the Monsters of Rock Festival Castle Donington 16 August 1980 *'See The Light Shining' dedicated to Fast Eddie.

Personnel

;Saxon *

Biff Byford Peter Rodney "Biff" Byford (born 15 January 1951) is an English singer best known as the lead vocalist of the heavy metal band Saxon. Early life Byford was born in Skelmanthorpe, West Yorkshire, the youngest of four children to Ernest Ch ...

– vocals *Graham Oliver – guitar *Paul Quinn – guitar *

Steve Dawson ''yes'Steve is a masculine given name, usually a short form (hypocorism) of Steven or Stephen Notable people with the name include: steve jops * Steve Abbott (disambiguation), several people * Steve Adams (disambiguation), several people * Steve ...

– bass guitar *

Pete Gill Peter Gill (born 9 June 1951) is an English former heavy metal drummer, formerly a member of The Glitter Band, Saxon and Motörhead. Gill was one of the two drummers in The Glitter Band, then formed part of the original line-up of Saxon in ...

Song notes

Reception

Track listing

Personnel

Charts

Album

Singles

Certifications

References