Old CDs Reviewed Anew #3 - Armored Saint - La Raza

[TageRyche]

This album was the third of 4 albums I got on Record Store Day.

And while being released last year doesn't automatically make it an "OLD" album, once a new year rolls around any album not in the given calendar year gets listed under this banner.

 

Armored Saint

La Raza

Metal Blade Records - 2010

http://www.myspace.com/armoredsaint1

 

So can you name me a criminally underrated metal band that always seems to turn out quality album after quality album and gets praise from their fan base and nobody else it seems?

Of course, you can. I'm thinking Metal Church....okay, them and of course the band that I am writing about now, Armored Saint.

Since the release of the Raising Fear album, each time a new Armored Saint release hits store shelves, they just rock your socks off.

They don't seem to come up with that one or two outlandishly popular songs that would launch their fanbase into a new stratsophere but what they do instead is give you as much bang for your buck as possible.

On La Raza, I can say that I enjoyed each of the songs. Three tracks in particular stood out for my own personal tastes but overall, you will find stupendously hot guitar riffs that lead each song on a sonic attack against your ears. John Bush may have gotten screwed over by Anthrax but his "true" band should always be Armored Saint. His voice sounds fantastic through and through.

I honestly can't recall the songwriting credits for past albums, but on this album, Bush wrote all the lyrics while all-world bassist, producer and writer Joey Vera wrote all the music. 8 rockers, and two more mid tempo songs. One of those rises to a harder faster edge towards the end of the song.

I liked the song that was the "single" from the album, "Left Hook From Right Field" and "Get Off The Fence." For me though, the best song on the album was the track "Little Monkey." The band just goes balls out with their performance and Bush lets loose with his vocal delivery and just WAILS.

Again, I liked every song on the album but in order to be honest, I was slightly disappointed in the CD in that the songs weren't as instantly memorable upon first listen as the tracks on say, Symbol of Salvation. Of course, that album set the bar so high, it is hard to match up to that every song, every time. And you never know, the songs may just end up growing on me even more as I listen to the album more and more.

 

Rating: B PLUS

[Jon]

I liked this album so much that I picked up "Revelation" which isn't too bad and, per your recommendation, "Symbol Of Salvation" which I still haven't listened to yet.

[TageRyche]

For my money, Raising Fear and Symbol of Salvation are the best albums from Armored Saint.