Armored Saint Return to Studio for First New Album in Nine Years

Veteran Los Angeles metal band Armored Saint are getting ready to enter Tranzformer Studios in Burbank, Calif. to track their sixth full-length studio album -- which is their first since 2000s 'Revelation.'

But when vocalist John Bush and bassist Joey Vera first got together early last year, they weren't specifically planning to write an Armored Saint album.

"John and I started out writing music just for the sake of writing music," bassist Joey Vera tells Noisecreep. "The first few tunes were very blues rock based, and one of them was even a pure pop song."

As they got further into the process, however, they started writing heavier, more metallic tunes and decided to involve their bandmates, guitarists Phil Sandoval and Jeff Duncan and drummer Gonzo Sandoval. By December 2008, Armored Saint had finished eight new songs that combined stomping rhythms and crunching riffs with lots of swaggering, bluesy groove.

"We are keeping the blues-based songs in our recording session because we've always had that side of our influences come through, as 'Over the Edge' from [1985's] 'Delirious Nomad' or 'The Truth Always Hurts' from [1991's] 'Symbol of Salvation,'" Vera says. "But we also have written new heavier tunes. We just tried to keep in mind that the song must have melody and that John's voice is really best suited to sing melodic, blues-based rock."

Vera will produce the yet-untitled record and Bryan Carlstrom, who engineered 1991's 'Symbol of Salvation' will again engineer. The two plan to mix the album together. Tracks will likely include 'Black Feet,' 'Chilled,' 'Blues la Raza,' 'Head On,' 'Get off the Fence' and 'Left Hook From Right Field' and 'Loose Cannon.' A demo for the latter was posted on the band's MySpace in July. The new Armored Saint album is tentatively scheduled for release in spring 2010.

It is unclear how Armor Saint's return to the studio will impact Anthrax, who are currently without a singer, but performed with Bush at the Sonisphere Festival in the U.K. on Aug. 1. Bush is also scheduled to play with Anthrax on Oct. 17 at the Loud Park '09 Festival in Japan. Bush sang for Armored Saint for 10 years before joining Anthrax in 1992, where he remained until 2005.