Are you readyyyyyyyy?
Will you please welcome, from Los Angeles, California…
Armored Saint!
Armored Saint was formed in 1981 by the Sandoval brothers, guitarist Phil and drummer Gonzo.
They’d then bring on guitarist Dave Prichard and vocalist John Bush, as well as bassist
Joey Vera.
Gonzo would come up with the name Armored
Saint after seeing the 1981 John Boorman fantasy
film, Excalbur.
Our group originated out of a friendship group
in high school.
We started playing the clubs around LA and
pretty soon we got pretty popular and our
following kept growing.
A 1982 demo would get the band featured on the Metal Blade Records compilation album
Metal Massacre 2...
...followed by a self-titled
EP.
Coming in at under 12 minutes long, the EP,
also released by Metal Blade, is a short but
adrenaline-charged sampling of the band.
Even though this is an EP, this is a great
place to start with Armored Saint.
Metal Blade knew how to record a metal album and showcase the bands strengths.
In 1984, Armored Saint would get the opportunity
to sign with a semi-major record label.
However, UK-based Chrysalis Records would turn out to be an odd fit, considering the
label isn’t exactly known for its metal
roster.
In fact, Armored Saint is the ONLY American metal band they’d ever sign.
March of the Saint, Armored Saint’s debut
album, came out in 1984 to positive reviews
and decent sales, despite a difficult recording
experience for the band.
Chrysalis is a great record label.
The only problem is that they just were naïve back then about heavy rock.
With us they were always just scratching their heads like, “What do with these guys?"
Working with a producer they didn’t see
eye to eye with didn’t help either.
Still, this is not a bad album.
The production could have been better…
Maybe it should have came out on Metal Blade.
Sorry, Chrysalis, but what can you say?
…but there are still some great tracks on
here, including the single Can U Deliver,
which also got a music video, straight from
the post-apocalypse!
The video sees the band roaming the barren wasteland.
Gonzo and Joey are in some kind of Mad Max
vehicle, John is wondering through the forest
in a cloak, Dave is revving up his motorcycle...
...and Phil emerges from the bog as the skies turn red.
They all come together (John loses his cloak
at some point) and lightning starts to crash
as a giant knight in the sky throws a sword
down into the ground before them.
The knight flexes behind them while the band
grab onto the sword like they’re deciding
who bats first before a pick-up baseball game.
The guys all look at each other in confusion
for a moment…
…before they start rocking out, suddenly
on stage somewhere.
It’s unclear if they’ve been sent back
in time or if this club is meant to be in
the same post-apocalyptic universe as the
opening, but either way, the band is still
wearing their post-apocalyptic gear and everyone seems fine with it.
Armored Saint’s second album, Delirious
Nomad, came out in November/October of 1985.
This time, the band had Ozzy Osbourne producer Max Norman on board
to help them get the sound they wanted.
And the production does sound better suited
to Armored Saint on this album, with a focus
on straightforward riff-oriented power rock
(with some bluesy grooves thrown in) and sweet
guitar solos.
One disappointing thing about this album though
is that the band decided not to do any music
videos after they were told MTv was cancelling
its heavy metal programming.
What about video stuff? Anything in the works?
No, nothing for this record.
We chose not to do one.
We just wanted to save money and use it in
other areas such as touring
and a bit more in advertising.
Delirious Nomad is good but probably won’t
blow anyone away.
It is worth checking out though and definitely has some highlights.
During the recording of this album, guitarist
Phil Sandoval would decide to leave the band,
or be asked to leave, for personal reasons.
There’s not a lot of information about why
this happened.
Phil only says that he went through some dark times.
Armored Saint would record their third album,
Raising Fear, as a four piece.
They’d continue to have issues with their
label during the recording process (including
an ill-advised Lynyrd Skynyrd cover forced
upon them)…
…leading to an uneven album with good production
and a handful of above average tracks.
After Raising Fear’s release, Armored Saint
would be dropped by Chrysalis Records.
It’s really a shame they went with Chrysalis
to begin with since the creative disagreements
left the band feeling unguided with a sound
that could be hard to pin down.
We describe our music as groove-orientated hard rock.
Most of the time it’s obviously pretty heavy
and we like to exude a lot of power.
It’s full of aggression and full of like,
rebellious connotations and hopefully it’s
what the kids want and what the parents don’t!
Armored Saint’s sound and style is very
diverse so we try to grow on that
and expand on that.
But you know, we’ve been called everything
from uh… hard rock to heavy metal to power metal.
I dunno. I hate categories.
But it’s Armored Saint.
Armored Saint would be dealt another huge
blow when guitarist Dave Prichard was diagnosed
with leukemia.
The group had already started writing for
another album but Dave would pass away from
the disease in 1990 before they'd get a chance to record.
With the full support of Metal Blade Records and
determined to move forward, Armored Saint
would get Phil back in the band and would
also add an additional guitarist…
Jeff Duncan who played in a local band called
Odin who played a lot of shows with Armored
Saint back in the early days.
…to record Armored Saint’s fourth album,
Symbol of Salvation.
To me, this sounds like the album they’d
been trying to make for 10 years.
John’s uniquely growly vocals sound amazing
and the mix is clean and heavy.
Along with Reign of Fire, we’d also get
a music video for my favorite Armored Saint
track, Last Train Home.
Of course, if your metal song mentions a train,
there must be trains in the video.
So here we see the band all rocking out in
a dusty old train station.
With John in his 90s jeans.
When I think about Armored Saint, this is
the album I think about.
It’s great from start to finish, and while
it didn’t receive a lot of attention upon
its release, it’s since become regarded
as something of an overlooked classic album.
Also, returning to Metal Blade allowed for
a much less stressful recording process for
this album.
This is Metal Blade’s… you know, this
is their baby.
They know what to do with this kind of music.
Still, with an underperforming album that
they’d poured their heart and souls into,
the band was probably emotionally drained.
With their future uncertain to begin with,
they finally made the decision to disband
completely when John got offered to replace
Joey Belladonna as the frontman for Anthrax.
However, before they broke up, they would
make time to make a quick appearance
in Hellraiser 3: Hell on Earth, in 1992.
Through the rest of the 90s, everyone would
go on to other musical projects.
John in Anthrax, Joey would play in bands
like Fates Warning and release a solo album,
the Sandoval brothers would start a band called
Life After Death, and Jeff Duncan would join
a band called DC4 with his brothers Shawn
and Matt.
However, in 1999, John had some downtime from
Anthrax and Armored Saint would reform with
the entire Symbol of Salvation lineup to return
to the studio and record Revelation, released
in March of 2000.
Their sixth album, still on Metal Blade, picks
up where Symbol of Salvation left off, at
least from a hard rock spirit and production
standpoint.
It’s an easy enough album to listen to but
just never quite reaches the same songwriting
heights as Symbol of Salvation for me.
After a nine-year break, they’d follow this
up with 2010’s La Raza.
This album finally gets another music video
with the black and white boxing themed
Left Hook From Right Field.
We see a boxer getting ready for a fight and
he goes out to the ring.
He takes a few punches and gets knocked down
pretty quickly.
He manages to get back up, only to be wailed
on some more.
Raging Bull style.
He gets knocked down again and apparently
has a dream about Joey Bush in a suit giving
him a pep talk.
The boxer starts fighting again and we see
that he’s battling different religious authority figures.
He knocks them out cold and gives himself
a fist bump.
Armored Saint’s most recent album is 2015’s
Win Hands Down.
Each of the 21st century Armored Saint albums
have some good stuff on them with some progressive
elements here are there but, of the three,
I’d definitely recommend this one.
The more progressive elements are utilized
nicely here and John Bush’s voice just continues
to sound better with age.
Armored Saint has another album planned to
come out in October of 2020 so I’m excited
to check it out and see where they go.
Plus, that gives you just enough time to study
up on their catalogue!
Check out the Armored Saint EP, the debut
album March of the Saint, Symbol of Salvation
of course, and Win Hands Down.
And that’s Armored Saint!
Check ‘em out for some old school power
metal and be sure to hit the subscribe button
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Thanks for watching!
