Whatever you choose to call it: “difficult second album syndrome” or “sophomore slump”, it remains a threatening, hovering spectre for bands that have created cracking debut records. Whether caused by a lack of suitable songs or a psychological dread of writing inferior fresh material, it has debilitated many an artist. Seemingly, Six By Six – the power trio formed by Robert Berry, Saga’s Ian Crichton and Saxon drummer Nigel Glockler – were also unable to dodge that fear when constructing the follow-up to their universally lauded self-titled debut in 2022.
“It’s something that’s hard to explain and it is a little bit like writer’s block,” considers Berry, seated in his home studio. “I felt the pressure from the first album doing so well, that first of all, we didn’t want to disappoint ourselves. In fact, I remember Ian sent me a couple of guitar ideas as we started the construction of our first song. I did some things on it, sent it back to.
