{"id":32925,"date":"2015-06-08T00:00:12","date_gmt":"2015-06-08T00:00:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/?p=32925"},"modified":"2015-06-27T19:34:15","modified_gmt":"2015-06-27T19:34:15","slug":"feature-armored-saint-06-15","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/feature-armored-saint-06-15\/","title":{"rendered":"ARMORED SAINT – An Exercise In Winning (June 2015) | Features \/ Interviews @ Metal Forces Magazine"},"content":{"rendered":"

ARMORED SAINT – An Exercise In Winning<\/strong><\/span>
\nAnthony Morgan<\/span>
\nJune 2015<\/span><\/p>\n

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Armored Saint (l-r): Phil Sandoval, Gonzo Sandoval, Jeff Duncan, John Bush and Joey Vera<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/div>\n<\/td>\n
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\nBy roughly January-February 2014, Joey Vera \u2013 bassist for Los Angeles, California-based metal outfit Armored Saint \u2013 had penned several riffs with no specific intention in mind. These riffs would mark the beginning of what would become seventh full-length studio album Win Hands Down<\/em><\/a>, which arrived in June 2015 through longtime label Metal Blade.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt usually comes out of the blue,\u201d Joey Vera remarks. \u201cI had written a couple of things, and had sent them over to John (Bush, vocals). It wasn\u2019t necessarily that I said \u2018Hey, let\u2019s start making a record now for Armored Saint.\u2019 It was more like we had just happened to speak in passing. He asked me if I had been writing anything lately, and I said \u2018As a matter of fact, I\u2019ve just recorded a couple of little things.\u2019 He said \u2018I\u2019d love to hear it,\u2019 so I sent it over to him. <\/p>\n

\u201cHe got excited by it, so I went back and kind of fine-tuned the couple of songs. Then he said \u2018I wanna write some lyrics for this,\u2019 so then he basically did that. He came over to the house, and put down some vocals. We had one song written, and said \u2018Well, this is cool. This is fun. Let\u2019s keep going.\u2019 Even at that point, we didn\u2019t really say \u2018Okay, let\u2019s write a new Armored Saint record.\u2019 It was more about just writing music together. So, we wrote a couple more, and that actually went really quickly. We had written three or four songs in the first maybe a month and a half, which for us is super-fast. It was at that point where we said… We had three to four songs kind of written and completed, and so we said \u2018This is great stuff. This could be for a new Armored Saint record. What do you think about that?\u2019 We talked about it, and decided to move forward with that in mind. <\/p>\n

\u201cAt that point, we began writing more seriously with the intention of it being an Armored Saint record. The process is always the same. Lately, it\u2019s been the same. I\u2019d say in the last ten years, it\u2019s been like this, where the music comes through me. Me being the sort of musical director for the band, for lack of a better term. What happens is I\u2019ll make a demo tape. Not a tape… We don\u2019t use tape anymore, but I usually make a demo of the tunes (laughs). I make pretty elaborate demos; they are complete with human sounding drum tracks, and overdubs. Some of them have 32 tracks and upwards, so some of my demos are super elaborate. They sound like finished records basically when they\u2019re done. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhen those songs are done demoing, I send them to John. Then he takes the songs, and basically drives around in his car after taking his kids to school or what not. He comes up with the melodies and the lyrics while he\u2019s driving \u2013 he\u2019s jotting down notes, or whatever. When he\u2019s ready, he comes back to my house. I have a small studio here where we make all of the music. He lays down the vocals; we spend three hours or something putting down all of the vocal tracks, and at that point the song is usually done. We sometimes make adjustments after that \u2013 we change arrangements, or add things, or take things away, or whatever \u2013 but that\u2019s basically how the process works.\u201d<\/p>\n

Such comments suggest guitarists Phil Sandoval and Jeff Duncan aren\u2019t overly involved during songwriting sessions, sessions being principally handled by the rhythmist and frontman John. \u201cIn the old days, it was different,\u201d he remembers. \u201cWe\u2019d all get into a room and play, like \u2018Hey, I have a riff\u2019 and then \u2018Hey, I have a riff. Let\u2019s put them together.\u2019 Songwriting was done that way. It was a super long and laborious way of doing it, so we felt like this new way was just a much more practical and efficient way of doing it, doing it on our own. The other guys contribute stuff, but in the end, the music has to go through John and myself. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhat happens is people will send in ideas, and basically we\u2019ll try to fit into where we are at \u2013 John and I. I think that John and I have just struck on a working relationship and a method where we get into kind of a pattern and a moment, and we just begin writing stuff. It starts to snowball. The guys will send in stuff sometimes, and sometimes it\u2019s hard for them to fit into what we\u2019re doing. A lot of times, the stuff they send in isn\u2019t quite right, whether it\u2019s the direction the band is going, or the music that\u2019s being written, or that the style of it is slightly different. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe only song that really came together as a group is \u2018With A Full Head Of Steam\u2019, and that was a song that was initiated from a riff that Phil Sandoval had. He had this thing that was basically a chord progression, and it came to me. Again, it was something that was interesting, but it wasn\u2019t really in the same ballpark that John and I were writing in. So, I kind of took it all apart like an auto mechanic. I just disassembled the whole thing (laughs), and then put it into a different context where it was sort of more fitting in with the stylistics of what John and I had been writing. It basically got put together, and was rearranged. I added some extra music that I had, and then Jeff Duncan had also contributed something \u2013 there was one little section that he had written that I had stuck in there. That song ended up being a group effort, but basically via email (laughs). That\u2019s how it came to be.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Pearl Aday \u2013 Joey\u2019s bandmate in rock \u2019n\u2019 rollers Motor Sister, as well as featuring for the likes of namesake ensemble Pearl among others \u2013 guests on the aforementioned composition \u2018With A Full Head Of Steam\u2019. \u201cWhile we were writing the whole record, John kept bringing up the idea of him singing a duet with a female singer,\u201d Joey shares. \u201cWhile we were writing though, I never really felt like any of the songs that we were coming across were a good launching pad for that kind of an idea, but when \u2018With A Head Full Of Steam\u2019 came out… I believe that was the last song we wrote, if I am not mistaken. When that song came through, John had written all of the vocal melodies and all of the words. We laid it down as a demo, and once we were listening back to it, we both agreed that that was the song that was a good venue for having a duet with someone. <\/p>\n

\u201cOnce we agreed on that \u2013 that we were gonna get a female vocalist \u2013 Pearl was the obvious choice. She\u2019s a friend of both of ours \u2013 John has known her for a long time, as well. She\u2019s just close with us, and also a great singer. There are a lot of other reasons. I\u2019ve worked with Pearl on other occasions, obviously with Motor Sister, and on her own solo thing. There\u2019s just a good connection there. We try to have working relationships with the people that we work with, so it just seemed like a no-brainer at that point. We asked her, and she was excited (laughs). She got to sing on a metal record with John Bush.\u201d<\/p>\n

Press materials issued in conjunction with Win Hands Down<\/em> note that \u2018Dive\u2019 was the last tune written for the nine-track affair, and not \u2018With A Full Head Of Steam\u2019. \u201cI think \u2018Dive\u2019 was written before that,\u201d the composer ponders. \u201cThat\u2019s a good point. It was written right around the same time, but I believe \u2018Dive\u2019… \u2018Dive\u2019 is a weird one too though, because \u2018Dive\u2019 was something that went through several metamorphic changes. That song wasn\u2019t really final; it was written, but it wasn\u2019t completed until we were actually recording. What I mean by that is we had the basic structure down musically and the arrangement, but we hadn\u2019t really finalised what the vocals were doing, and how we were going to orchestrate the ending of the song. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe bedrock of it was always there, but we kind of left it up until studio time to finalise most of the vocal arrangements, and also the string arrangements too. That was all added at the very end, but I believe the song was… We were pretty much satisfied with the arrangement of it as far as the music went, but we weren\u2019t quite sure what we were doing with the vocals until the very end. But yeah, you\u2019re right. It was there, neck and neck with \u2018With A Full Head Of Steam\u2019, but I think that \u2018Dive\u2019 was put down before \u2018With A Full Head Of Steam\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although past cut \u2018Another Day\u2019 (from May 1991\u2019s Symbol Of Salvation<\/em>) boasted a piano, \u2018Dive\u2019 marks the first proper piano led track to be authored by Armored Saint. \u201cYeah, and that was another thing that John came to me with,\u201d Joey informs. \u201cWe\u2019ve done sort of \u2018ballads\u2019 before, but we\u2019ve never really done anything with a piano. John had mentioned to me quite a while back actually that he had always wanted to sing on a song that was just him and piano, and so once we came up with that concept, we wanted to pursue it. I began writing a few things, and a few things that I wrote I wasn\u2019t quite happy with. Then I came across this old part that was actually written on a guitar, and I transposed it onto piano. It was just the intro, basically \u2013 the verse sections. Once I figured that out on piano, then the rest of the song came pretty naturally after that, and all the rest of chord progressions. I wrote the rest of it on piano myself, but then the idea was like \u2018Well, we don\u2019t want to just write a piano ballad.\u2019 It wasn\u2019t something that we wanted to do. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe tried to make it somewhat different, so I tried to make it a little more dark and brooding \u2013 more of a Pink Floyd thing than anything else. Once we got into that head-space, the song I thought really came together well. It\u2019s also a nice showcase for John, singing in a different range where he doesn\u2019t have to go up and belt it out in an upper register. In fact, I don\u2019t think the vocals ever quite raise up to that point, but that was our intention. We wanted to keep it just a really hypnotising sort of a thing all the way through, from start to finish.\u201d<\/p>\n

Harbouring intentions in writing the track \u2018Dive\u2019, Armored Saint harboured intentions in writing Win Hands Down<\/em>\u2019s whole collection of tracks in fact. \u201cOnce we got to that point I said about earlier, where we had a few songs under our belt and we were discussing making an Armored Saint record, we do have these conversations \u2013 we have them all the time,\u201d the four-stringer notes. \u201cWe talk about it. We had a long discussion before we made the last record La Raza<\/em> (March 2010) as well, so we always have these discussions \u2013 him and I \u2013 about what we\u2019re gonna do, and the state of the music. We look at our past a little bit, and we look at what our intentions are gonna be. We usually have the same conversation, and it goes something like this. <\/p>\n

\u201cFor one thing, we never wanna repeat ourselves. We don\u2019t want to just make part two of another record that we made and at the same time, we want to experiment more. We want to push ourselves as far as the soundscapes go, and as far as instrumentation or arrangements go. We never wanna go out and just make a record that is obligatory, you know what I mean? We never wanna feel like we\u2019re obliged to please a group of fans let\u2019s say, where all they wanna hear is Symbol Of Salvation<\/em> over and over and over. We never wanna do that. We always have to make music that\u2019s basically pleasing to ourselves first. Now, that\u2019s not to say that we are willing to just completely abandon everybody. We are well aware of where we come from, and what the lineage is of our group. Once we decided on that, then that\u2019s the conversation we continued to remind ourselves of along the way, like \u2018How can we make this bigger, better and more interesting? Let\u2019s be challenging to ourselves a little bit.\u2019 That\u2019s usually the conversation we have.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Armored Saint (l-r): Joey Vera, Gonzo Sandoval, Jeff Duncan, Phil Sandoval and
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In authoring compositions, Joey wished to create more music sections, and not be tied to a verse \/ chorus \/ verse \/ chorus \/ guitar solo \/ end of song type format. \u201cThat\u2019s the thing with arrangements,\u201d he begins. \u201cYou can get stuck in a habit, of writing a certain way. I\u2019m guilty of it myself. There\u2019s certain things that I like in terms of what happens in a song, but I always try to say to myself that the song writes itself. Sometimes a song feels like it should go with this arrangement, and then it just does. Then other times, it might feel like that, but I have to say that I always question myself, like \u2018Well, could it go this way? Could I shake it up a bit and make the verse that much longer?,\u2019 \u2018Does it have to go to a guitar solo now? Can I go to a bridge instead?,\u2019 or \u2018Do we have to go to a second verse?\u2019 Those sorts of things. <\/p>\n

\u201cThose are things that I\u2019m always sort of playing with, and that\u2019s where the challenging part comes \u2013 not just doing the same thing over and over and over again. I think an interesting arrangement is in \u2018An Exercise In Debauchery\u2019, where it goes to like a verse-verse and then a verse-chorus, and then it goes straight into a solo section. And the solo section is lengthy; it\u2019s a guitar solo, and then a bass solo, and then another guitar solo. It\u2019s unusual (laughs). It\u2019s something that was really done intentionally though, and that\u2019s an example of us trying to push it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Armored Saint seemingly pursued whichever musical direction they wished, to an extent. \u201cYeah,\u201d the performer agrees. \u201cI don\u2019t mean to cut you off, but there\u2019s a balance with everything. I think everything\u2019s gotta have balance, so part of the other side of that balance is yeah, I wanna experiment. I wanna push boundaries, and I wanna try new things. Songwriting is a little bit of an experiment for me, challenging what I know musically \u2013 my theory, as much as I try to incorporate as much of that as I can. The other side of the balance though is I\u2019m always keeping an eye open on, like I said, where we come from, and what people perceive us to be, and what people like about our band. It makes me look back at our past catalogue, and say \u2018Well, what is it that fans really like about us?\u2019 I try to remember, and try to hone in on certain things that I think we do well. Some things I feel like we didn\u2019t do so well in the course of our career, but there are some things that I think that we did that were unique, that were interesting, and that people associate it with us. <\/p>\n

\u201cTo be more specific, there\u2019s a certain thing about our rhythm section, the way that the bass and drums play together in certain instances. That is kind of unique to the music that we write, and I think that a lot of people gravitate towards that. Particularly, there\u2019s a rhythm section thing where the drums and bass play something a little bit funky. An example might be in the song \u2018Stricken By Fate\u2019 from March Of The Saint<\/em> (October 1984), and we\u2019ve repeated that thing through our career in various, different ways. I took that vibe, the feeling of the way that we played that thing in the rhythm section, and I put it into some of the newer songs. It appears in the song that I just mentioned \u2013 \u2018An Exercise In Debauchery\u2019 \u2013 so there\u2019s a thing that I wanted to bring from what we\u2019ve done in the past into the songs that we\u2019re writing now. <\/p>\n

\u201cAnother example maybe is the way that Dave Prichard used to play rhythm guitar. He\u2019s sadly not here any more and his style is sometimes missed, so I wanted to bring something from Dave into the new record. In my ears anyway, it appears on the song \u2018Muscle Memory\u2019; the way that the chorus is played, that\u2019s an unabashed nod to Dave Prichard. I wrote that part, and it reminded me of something that Dave would write. That is something specific that I brought into a song, and that\u2019s another example of me looking back on our career and saying \u2018What is it that people are really attached to or like about the way that some of our older records are?,\u2019 and then bringing them into these new songs that we were writing.\u201d<\/p>\n

As Joey referenced, guitarist Dave Prichard contributed tracks to Armored Saint in the early days, prior to his untimely passing. Principally handling differing instruments, this perhaps makes a difference during the songwriting process, Joey arguably approaching songwriting from a bass perspective as opposed to a guitar perspective. \u201cWell, there\u2019s gotta be some difference,\u201d he concedes. \u201cI also play guitar. I\u2019ve been playing guitar longer than I\u2019ve been playing bass, believe it or not (laughs), but I\u2019m a better bass player than a guitar player. I\u2019m not a bad guitar player, though. I\u2019ve been writing music for Armored Saint since day one on the guitar. I would say that Dave Prichard was a 60% songwriter and I was a 40% songwriter through the years, but when Dave passed away, then suddenly it was like \u2018Okay. Well, who\u2019s gonna make up the other 60% now?\u2019 <\/p>\n

\u201cSo, I\u2019m doing most of the songwriting now as explained earlier, but I do have my own idiosyncrasies that are different than the way Dave approached it. Certainly there\u2019s something different about it, for sure. I perceive things a little more… My style\u2019s probably a lot more sort of blues-based, 70s hard rock-based, and Dave had a little more of a classical influence than I do. When he passed away, he had been getting more and more into classical sounding things. I can\u2019t really name anything specific, but his playing was just a lot more based on scales let\u2019s say than mine was.\u201d<\/p>\n

When someone passes away like Dave \u2013 as was discussed in a March 2015 Metal Forces<\/em> feature<\/a> with the bass musician \u2013 one always wonders as to the musical direction of a given band had that individual lived; in this case had Dave lived, one wonders what the musical direction of Armored Saint would have been. \u201cYeah, and people wonder that about Randy Rhoads (late Ozzy Osbourne guitarist), and a lot of people \u2013 where would they have gone,\u201d he adds. \u201cIt\u2019s really hard to say, but I\u2019d venture to say that in Dave\u2019s case in particular, he was always someone that was always very creative. He was also an artist and he liked to draw let\u2019s say, for instance. He was always this kind of person who was making things with his hands. I think his creativity was innate and it was very restless, because he was always ready to do something else. I think that having that in his personality would\u2019ve taken him… <\/p>\n

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Dave Prichard (left) and Joey Vera performing live with Armored Saint in 1986<\/em><\/b><\/span><\/div>\n<\/td>\n
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\u201cHe would\u2019ve just blossomed more and more, and become an even better player than he was. Maybe he would\u2019ve even studied theory, because he never really studied theory. None of us did \u2013 I didn\u2019t study any theory until I was in my early 30s. He may have gotten into that, and that would\u2019ve opened up more doors for him. I would think that he would\u2019ve blossomed into some guy that was always being very creative and moving forward. I couldn\u2019t have seen him going down the route of getting tattoos and piercings, and becoming that guy (laughs). I don\u2019t know. Maybe I could be wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dave Prichard sadly passed away on February 28th, 1990, although 25 years later Armored Saint is still soldiering on, as the opus Win Hands Down<\/em> bears witness. Nevertheless, not all of its tracks resembled typical Armored Saint numbers in their formative versions. \u201cOne of the first songs that I wrote was \u2018In An Instant\u2019, and that song almost didn\u2019t sound like an Armored Saint song at first,\u201d Joey divulges. \u201cI didn\u2019t know what it sounded like, and sometimes that\u2019s just for no apparent reason. I have good intentions of writing music for another solo record \u2013 sort of a more progressive rock thing \u2013 but that didn\u2019t really fit into that. I don\u2019t know. Like I said, there\u2019s no real intention. Sometimes I just write things, and they come out of my head. <\/p>\n

\u201cFor instance, the intro to \u2018In An Instant\u2019; it reminded me of something King\u2019s X might write, and I love King\u2019s X \u2013 I\u2019m a huge King\u2019s X fan. The rest of the song doesn\u2019t sound anything like King\u2019s X (laughs). Just the acoustic guitar part reminded me of something that Ty (Tabor, King\u2019s X guitarist) might write or something, but I don\u2019t know. I just write basically out of nowhere, but once the rest of the song came into play, then it was like \u2018Well, that sounds like it could be an Armored Saint song.\u2019 Once John sang on it, it was like \u2018Well, this sounds like an Armored Saint song\u2019 (laughs).\u201d<\/p>\n

Although the bassist has written for other ventures, what he writes will always arguably be within that Armored Saint realm to an extent, given Armored Saint is a part of who the man is. \u201cYeah,\u201d he muses. \u201cI mean, I hope so. I\u2019ve been writing for Saint for a long time, and a lot of the popular songs were songs that I wrote. Like \u2018Nervous Man\u2019 (from November 1985\u2019s Delirious Nomad<\/em>) \u2013 I\u2019m a co-writer on that. \u2018Long Before I Die\u2019 is a song that I wrote (from Delirious Nomad<\/em>), \u2018Aftermath\u2019 is a song that I wrote (from Delirious Nomad<\/em>), \u2018Tainted Past\u2019 is a song that I wrote (from Symbol Of Salvation<\/em>). Those are some of the songs that I\u2019ve written a 100% musically along the way. It\u2019s not like it was suddenly \u2018Okay, now you have to write,\u2019 so it\u2019s something that\u2019s been gradual and just the way things have come out. This has been a process, this thing, me being the sole musical director. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe transition began right when we were making Symbol Of Salvation<\/em>. I was the co-producer on that record, so I was the one who oversaw the making of that record, and the performances and everything. That was sort of my introduction to it, and then once we got back together in 2000 to make Revelation<\/em> (March 2000), I just put the hat back on. I\u2019m assuming that role, and again, the songs that we\u2019re writing are just… As I said before, I feel like they\u2019re all experiments. They\u2019re just investigations into different ways to write songs, and what we\u2019re capable of, and what we do well, and capitalising on that sort of thing too.\u201d<\/p>\n

Albeit conducting investigations into different ways to write songs, as Joey discussed earlier, he is nevertheless aware of what Armored Saint fans perceive Armored Saint to be. \u201cI think that it varies,\u201d he judges. \u201cTo break it down into a subgroup, some are larger than others, but I would say that for the most part \u2013 and I\u2019m speaking in sort of general terms \u2013 most of the fans wanna hear a great guitar riff, and they wanna hear a good, funky rhythm section. I think that\u2019s something that they are familiar with, and then mostly they wanna hear the great melodies. They like singing, and they love John Bush\u2019s voice. They love the way that he writes lyrics and the way that he delivers them, and the melodies. Just in general, I think they like the songs that we\u2019ve written. <\/p>\n

\u201cI think the people that have stuck with us for 30 years-plus have been the people who appreciate the fact that we kind of are a band in our own island. We\u2019re not really a thrash band, we\u2019re not really a hair metal band, we\u2019re not really a power metal band. We don\u2019t really fit into one category; we\u2019re just a band that has sort of done our own thing throughout the years. Not to say that we haven\u2019t written a thrash song or a song that could be perceived as a \u2018power metal\u2019 song, but in general as a band \u2013 as a whole sum of our parts \u2013 we\u2019ve kind of done our own thing, and I think that that\u2019s what people really appreciate about our band.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Lyrical duties for Win Hands Down<\/em> naturally fell to principal lyricist John Bush. \u201cThis record, a lot of it is probably John\u2019s most personal record,\u201d the rhythmist feels. \u201cA lot of the songs are not necessarily about him, but a lot of stuff on the record is very close to him, and it\u2019s personal. He reveals a lot more about the way he feels about things, more than he\u2019s ever done in the past. There\u2019s a lot of different things that he\u2019s holding really close to himself. The title track is kind of him paying homage to being young and growing up with a group of guys \u2013 being young and getting into trouble, us included. We grew up in a neighbourhood with a bunch of friends who are very close to us, and we all share this same bond together, of making music, and listening to old Saxon records, and Iron Maiden, and Judas Priest. We were coming up and were just young, playing records for each other and just being in that place where you were sharing something really cool. <\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s something that he\u2019s very fond of. It doesn\u2019t really have to do with being in a band \u2013 it was more about just being with friends. There was something about being young and naive at that point that was just so special, but you don\u2019t really realise it at the time because you\u2019re just living it. You\u2019re in the moment, and you\u2019re not analysing anything \u2013 you\u2019re just there. The song is a way for him to say about how free life can be if you can be in that place again. That\u2019s loosely what it\u2019s about, and so that song is personal in that sense, and a lot of it is on there. <\/p>\n

\u201c\u2018In An Instant\u2019 is close to him, too. A lot of times, we\u2019ve had people that have come into our lives, and then suddenly they have been taken from us. We have lost several friends over the course of the years, for different reasons. It\u2019s just re-examining how fragile life is, so there\u2019s a lot of it that\u2019s very close and personal to him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although nine tracks eventually surfaced on Win Hands Down<\/em>\u2019s eventual track listing, a tenth could easily have been included. \u201cThere was one song that didn\u2019t make the record; we have a demo of it, but it didn\u2019t make it to recording,\u201d Joey discloses. \u201cIt was a song that just didn\u2019t quite fit with the rest of the nine. It\u2019s in the same ballpark, but it was too much. It\u2019s a long song; it was another seven-minute song (laughs). <\/p>\n

\u201cPart of the reason why we wanted nine songs on the record was because of the total running time, more than anything. It\u2019s 51 minutes in terms of running time, and for me that\u2019s plenty long \u2013 it\u2019s bordering on too long. It\u2019s not too long, but it\u2019s not too short either. I think it was a good running length, so that\u2019s why we decided to not put the tenth song on there. It would\u2019ve made the record too long and I personally don\u2019t like the long records, so that was the reason why we wanted to keep it down to nine. It\u2019s got a lot of music on it for nine songs, and so I thought that it was a good decision.\u201d<\/p>\n

And although that tenth track was eventually omitted from Win Hands Down<\/em>, future Armored Saint material emerging is a distinct possibility. \u201cWe love writing together,\u201d the songwriter enthuses. \u201cI think that as long as we can continue that love for the writing, then it\u2019ll be fun at the very least. That\u2019s all that matters to us; as long as we enjoy what we\u2019re doing. <\/p>\n

Win Hands Down<\/em> was released on May 29th, 2015 in Germany, Switzerland and Austria via Metal Blade Records. General European issue occurred on June 1st, with North American issue taking place on the 2nd.<\/p>\n

Interview published in June 2015. All 2015 promotional photographs by Stephanie Cabral.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

ARMORED SAINT – An Exercise In Winning Anthony Morgan June 2015 Armored Saint (l-r): Phil Sandoval, Gonzo Sandoval, Jeff Duncan, John Bush and Joey Vera By roughly January-February 2014, Joey Vera \u2013 bassist for Los Angeles, California-based metal outfit Armored Saint \u2013 had penned several riffs with no specific intention in mind. These riffs would […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2177,23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-32925","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-armored-saint","category-features"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32925","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32925"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32925\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":43196,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32925\/revisions\/43196"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32925"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32925"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32925"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}