“Heavy Metal Thunder” is the latest compilation album of the legendary Saxon, one of the spearheads of the New Wave Of British Heavy Metal. And this is not the usual “quickly making money” compilation. Quite the contrary as this albums contains re-recorded versions of almost every Saxon classics from their twenty-three year career. Classic songs like “Heavy Metal Thunder”, “Strong Arm Of The Law”, “Power & The Glory” and “747 (Strangers In The Night)” have all been in captured in a 21st century sound. Some of these tracks have been previously released as bonus-tracks on a limited edition of the “Killing Ground” album and have now been completed as a full-fledged thirteen track compilation album.

Personally I’ve got some mixed feelings about this album. I’m used to hearing to these songs with their authentic sound and sometimes I feel like I’m listening to a modern Saxon cover band. On the second CD you’ll find the five tracks “Broken Heroes”, “Dragon’s Lair”, “The Eagle Has Landed”, “20.000 Feet” and “Crusader” recorded during their U.S. tour 2002, completed with a video track of “Killing Ground” of the 2001 Wacken show. Overall you can praise the effort that the band tried to make something special out of this compilation, and in my opinion they succeeded.