Oh, man, I love Armored Saint. More to the point, I love John Bush: It's high time I sit this guy down and buy him a beer for all the motivational metal he's created over the years, the amount of times his scratchy and, uh, sultry voice has lifted me up and made me ready to conquer the world.
On Win Hands Down, Armored Saint deliver the goods yet again, storming out of the gate with the title track, definitely a song about winning, like Bush's best always are. "Mess" and the excellent "An Exercise in Debauchery" showcase the band's strong points, mainly those to-die-for vocal lines and a knack for writing truly memorable and rockin' riff-driven metal. Can someone get these guys some degree of success beyond the smelly dudes at the bar finally mentioning them after they've talked about 50 other bands that night? Check out "Muscle Memory" and tell me why Metallica got huge and Armored Saint didn't; even late-album almost-clunker "In An Instant," which threatens to kill the party with its seven-minute meandering, ends up picking up the pace, kicking ass and forcing you to conquer yet another day.
The album does lose a bit of steam near the final stretch, and some of those lyrics are downright embarrassing, but overall, this is another winner for Armored Saint, and another victory for Bush to put on his resume.
(Metal Blade)On Win Hands Down, Armored Saint deliver the goods yet again, storming out of the gate with the title track, definitely a song about winning, like Bush's best always are. "Mess" and the excellent "An Exercise in Debauchery" showcase the band's strong points, mainly those to-die-for vocal lines and a knack for writing truly memorable and rockin' riff-driven metal. Can someone get these guys some degree of success beyond the smelly dudes at the bar finally mentioning them after they've talked about 50 other bands that night? Check out "Muscle Memory" and tell me why Metallica got huge and Armored Saint didn't; even late-album almost-clunker "In An Instant," which threatens to kill the party with its seven-minute meandering, ends up picking up the pace, kicking ass and forcing you to conquer yet another day.
The album does lose a bit of steam near the final stretch, and some of those lyrics are downright embarrassing, but overall, this is another winner for Armored Saint, and another victory for Bush to put on his resume.