Armored Saint - Symbol of Salvation (1991)^{Release ID: 7026}

One of the many bands that I flirted with the material but have never actually dipped in for ownership of any of their releases, Armored Saint certainly tick all the right boxes from a heavy metal perspective.  Their 1991 release was the first of theirs I had heard after now familiar anthems like Reign of Fire and Dropping Like Flies got air time on BBC Radio One's rock shows on a Friday and Saturday night.  Whenever I got around to attempting to sit through a full-length offering I found myself all too easily distracted though and soon gave up.

Symbol of Salvation starts off strong enough with the aforementioned two tracks opening proceedings well enough.  However, I remember there being more power behind the sound back in the day and these now aged (and battered) ears don't get quite the same level of bite from these two former favourites of mine.  That's not say that they are in anyway awful of course, just not aged well for me at least.  Last Train Home carries on the familiarity of yesteryear with its catchy chorus still ringing in my head for days after just one listen.

The odd yet somehow addictive Tribal Dance continues the strong start to the record, the lead work's blistering delivery planting a smile firmly on my mug.  The slightly flashy delivery of the track also adds something unexpected, I mean the song practically screams radio play list but I don't recall it from last visit to the record.  There's definitely the prospect of some sleazy-edged (almost cock rock) metal to The Truth Always Hurts as it smoulders its way through four minutes plus of catchy licks and infectious hooks.  Bush's strained vocal style works brilliantly on this track, trading blows with the guitars nicely, vying for space and both managing to steal their own slice of the limelight.

At this point the album takes a bit of a dip.  The brief and pointless instrumental Half Drawn Bridge seems a half-arsed attempt at an intro for Another Day.  The latter track itself is a half-ballad that does nothing other than show Bush's limitations until the guitars of Sandoval and Duncan rescue things with some more sterling lead work, the pace change around halfway through heralding an overall and much needed improvement in the direction and quality of the track.  Thankfully the title track lives up to expectations somewhat better even if the chorus feels a tad laboured.  The track stomps and bites better than the previous two that precede it most definitely.

One the main problems here is the album length, largely because of the quantity of filler that lines the album listing.  As well as the aforementioned tracks that seem weaker, Hanging Judge has a similar story of a half-baked structure that is barely rescued by the guitar work.  This is followed by the excellent Warzone which oozes classy songwriting with that sultry rock-tinged style again deployed to good effect.  Burning Question tries to keep this fire going but comes up short with its clunky structure and unnecessary labouring on the verses.  We don't need Tainted Past with its unnecessary length (I get the sentiment behind it for Prichard - his solo is the best part of the track by far) and album closer Spineless is a fine end to proceedings with its stompy rhythm and cutting riffs despite us having to wade through a bit of deadwood to get it.

Overall, a mixed bag but when the record is on point it is bang on point.