ALBUM REVIEW: Punching The Sky – Armored Saint

There’s probably an alternate universe where ARMORED SAINT are headlining festivals worldwide. This veteran act have been paying their dues since the early eighties and on this, their eighth studio album, they sound massive. They play good old-fashioned heavy metal with great big hooks and skyscraper choruses. Had things turned out differently they’d be all conquering legends by now. But the world is cruel, and the music industry is unfair, so this eternally underrated band will almost certainly remain in support slots.

Even if the riches and fame continue to evade them though, ARMORED SAINT have an absolute belter on their hands here. Punching The Sky is chock full of songs that are perfectly tailored to be played in arenas, thousands of voices joining together to bellow the lyrics out while elaborate light shows and firework displays pierce the night. They’ve benefited from the line-up remaining comparatively stable since 1989 and sound comfortable and confident. Even with all the hiatus-induced gaps in the band’s career, the five individuals who make up ARMORED SAINT work very well together and the results are writ large.

Opener Standing On The Shoulders Of Giants for instance is heavy music at its life-affirming best. It’s a colossal anthem with some seriously muscular riffage and a high-flying vocal performance from singer John Bush. Age hasn’t dampened the one-time ANTHRAX man’s passion; he is on fine form here.

Comparisons with his former band are inevitable, especially on cuts like Do Wrong To None and the excellent Missile To Gun, but even so, ARMORED SAINT stand on their own ten feet. My Jurisdiction is the heavier cousin of AEROSMITH, Lone Wolf belongs on the soundtrack to a nineties movie about fighter pilots and Fly In The Ointment is just brilliant. It’s a huge, soaring singalong that plays with the quiet-verse/loud-chorus dynamic and will get air guitarists contorting maniacally. This particular song makes a very strong argument that these guys could have been one of the world’s biggest bands if tragedy and misfortune hadn’t dogged their initial career.

Elsewhere, Unfair offers a brief respite from all the macho chest-thumping. It’s a laidback, ALICE IN CHAINS-esque semi-ballad. It’s nowhere near as grim as the grunge heroes can get, but the dark melodicism makes for an atmospheric interval before the grand finale of Never You Fret. Here, ARMORED SAINT ramp the pace up for a thrashy album closer. Its not the strongest effort in the track listing, but it is a hefty clenched fist of a song and ends things on a decent note.

In other words, while two out of the five guys involved have turned down jobs with METALLICA, they probably don’t regret it. ARMORED SAINT might not be Gods of metal, but they are a reliably entertaining band flying the flag for classic metal. Here’s to many more years of grandiose arena rock, even if it is confined to smaller venues. And just as many years infuriating pedantic British music journalists on the spelling differences between our countries. There’s a ‘U’ in ‘Armoured.’

Rating: 8/10

Punching The Sky is set for release on October 23rd via Metal Blade Records. 

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