A R M O R E D S A I N T

Armored Saint didn't interest me when they released their debut album March Of The Saint in 1984. At that time I had a hard time keeping track of all the British bands, which I found more interesting than the American heavy metal bands. As time went Armored Saint continued to release albums without my interest. By 1986 I had completely embraced the harder school of heavy metal. At that time it was all Venom, Metallica, Slayer, Anthrax etc. that mattered. I got rid of all my hardrock/heavy metal albums. Armored Saint, who I never cared for became less interesting. When they released their comeback-album "Revelation" in 2000 I thought it might be worth the trouble to look into it but I wasn't as impressed as everybody else seemed to be. I have during the last couple of years bought back much of what I got rid of in 1986 but it's first now 15-16 years later that I've really put my mind to building a collection of 80s metal (on vinyl). In the light of this a collection of bits'n'pieces from the history vaults of Armored Saint fits the picture. Joey Vera told me everything I wanted to know about the band. 

When you signed for Chrysalis what did the label expect to get from you and what did you expect to get from the label?
- I think that they thought that we were going to be their Def Leppard. We had more in common with On Thru' The Night than with Pyromania. Maybe not even they knew what they wanted. I remember that it was a huge label and that all they were used to was top 40. As an American label they were used to artists Billy Idol, Pat Benatar, Go West and Spandau Ballet, who were big for them. They were a Pop label. What we liked about them was that they had cool bands like UFO, Robin Trower, bands that we liked. The problem was that they were on the European side of the label where the mentality was different than the American. 

With the answers in hand wouldn't it have been smarter to have started on a smaller label and the n worked your way up?
- I don't know. There were things that we benefited from being on a big label. Mostly in exposure in media. People look different at you if you're on a major label, that it's bigger and better. Our problem started when we started to second-guess ourselves. We had a video for the first album and people saw that video, which lead to us believing that we were bigger than we were actually. But had we signed for a smaller label we wouldn't have gotten the same big headed notion of ourselves. 

If you look back on the three albums you released between 1984 and 1987 is there things you see now that maybe wasn't there the first time?
- March Of The Saint didn't get that much exposure since it was out first album. Delirious Nomad didn't get that much either and neither did "Raising Fear". Our fans knew about the existence of these albums despite them not being exposed. 

When you released Symbol Of Salvation in 1991 did you ever think that you in 2000 should release a new album?
- We had no idea. After John (Bush - sång) left we talked about it but I didn't take it serious. 

When John got offered the vocalist position in Anthrax did it feel like you'd been cheated on? You had been together for so long as a band. 
- When that situation came up we were forced to re-evaluate where ewe stood at that time. We had been together for ten years and we had gone through all kind of things, we had been apart for three years, got back together and done Symbol Of Salvation. It had been a lot of problems during the last five years and in the end we were frustrated and even if Symbol Of Salvation got good criticism we didn't have any money, we had regular jobs. So when John left us it was an amicable decision between us all. I don't know for how much longer we would have kept it up, something had to happen and that's just what happened. 

When you decided to do Revelation was Metal Blade the obvious choice or was that because you still owed them an album?
- We were free to do what ever we wanted. We spoke with a couple more labels but the only that felt right Metal Blade.

Is Nod To The Old School a result of the response you got from Revelation or is it something you've planned for a long time?
- It's something that has gotten a life of its own. We had planned to do an EP after Revelation with some live tracks and one new song. We thought that we maybe could add some extra tracks to it so we started to gather all the material we had and came to the conclusion that we had 17 tracks that we could release. So we decided to do something more that an EP. We wanted to give back something to the fans and surprise them. We wanted for it to be interesting. We wanted to add the old demos that people in Europe have tape traded all these years, the three songs that was on our first EP, we wanted some new material so that it had something of everything. 
- We used almost all the material we had. There are maybe two songs that didn't make. We didn't want to have too much material on the album since too much can be too tiresome. That's my personal opinion but we tried to have a decent amount from demos. We chose the songs we thought fitted the record the best. There are some demo songs that hasn't been recorded or hasn't been. 

The demo songs that are featured on this comp, for what purpose were they recorded?
-The demo songs were written between Raising Fear and Symbol Of Salvation so they were part of the songs we wrote for the album that was supposed to have come. The ones that are on this record is the one that was left. We had written something like 23 songs for "Symbol Of Salvation".

When you released your first album EP No Reason To Live on you own, was it harder then than it is today?
- It was fun back then. We were 19 and our biggest concern was where we were supposed to get out pot. To record back then was like a huge party. These days it's more. I miss the old days a bit but I don't care that much. Today you have young bands that come out while they're still young and they try to get big at once. You have to allow yourself to be ignorant to a certain level when you're young. If you think too much on what it is you do you loose some of the fun in playing Rock'N'Roll. 

When you released Revelation did it feel like it was a new beginning for Armored Saint?
- When the band broke up we did it during a period of hardship. When we got back together to do Revelation we had a meeting were we said that if we're going to do this then we'll do it just for the fun of it and not care about how successful the album is and everything else that comes with that. We'll do it for the music and for being together. Simply because we think it's fun, like when we started the first time. Everybody agreed to that and so far nothing has changed. It felt like a new band at that point in time.

What sort of reactions did you get for Revelation when it was released?
- Mostly positive. I think that everybody was satisfied with the album, which was nice for us to hear. We wanted to make a good record and we thought we'd done it so it was nice to hear that others thought so too. 

Were you surprised over the reactions and response that album?
- No, the reason I say that is that we didn't want to have any expectations on it. We did it and thought that it was an Armored Saint record and I hoped that it was something everybody else expected too.

Do you see a new Armored Saint album in the future?
- Probably but I can't say when. We have talked about doing a new album in 2002.

So Nod To The Old School is not to be seen as a closure for Armored Saint's career?
- No, not necessarily.