Artist: Armored Saint
Released: 1991 RATING: 4.5/5
The Good: Armored Saint is extremely underrated, partly due to the fact that they don't play extreme metal in any sense of the word, but aren't glam either; think of a heavy metal Thin Lizzy with slightly less guitar pyrotechnics (Honestly, classic Thin Lizzy shreds harder than some metal bands.) Their anthemic, hard hitting songs are memorable, and yet still pack plenty of crunch. Symbol of Salvation is Armored Saint's strongest album, top to bottom, and contains a slew of should-have-been Metal classics like "Reign of Fire", "Dropping Like Flies", "Last Train Home", "Tribal Dance", and really almost every song here. It really is the perfect storm of a filler-less album that sounds totally inspired and free, with energy and emotion to spare. Ace guitarist David Prichard's final contributions to the band (he passed away shortly before the album was completed) are evident everywhere; he played on and wrote the songs in the album's demo tapes. His playing ability was just world-class, and incredibly emotional songs like "Another Day" and "Tainted Past" have his mark all over them. Well worth the time to listen to.
The Bad: It isn't quite extreme metal (a la Black/Thrash/Death, etc), but is definately heavier than albums by their peers, including Guns and Roses(...), Warrant, and others. So sometimes I feel like, after I've been listening to really fast music (particularly thrash), if I listen to this album, it sounds too slow. But then again, maybe that works for you; either way, if you can get your hands on this album, don't hesitate. It is worth every penny and more.
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