Wheels of Steel by Saxon

Wheels of Steel, Saxon's second album, came out on Carrère in May 1980, from the Barnsley band that would help lead the new wave of British heavy metal. Pete Hinton produced it, and the lineup is pure early Saxon: Biff Byford hollering up front, Graham Oliver and Paul Quinn locking their guitars together, and Steve Dawson's bass and Pete Gill's drums hitting like a lorry with the brakes gone.

The title track rolls along exactly like its name, and people bought it. It was the first Saxon album to make the UK Albums Chart, climbing to number 5, still their highest placing there, and it went gold in Britain.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.