Album Review: Armored Saint - Emotion Factory Reset
Reviewed by Rich Oliver
Armored Saint are one of the mainstays of US heavy metal. A band that has been active on and off since 1982 and released some classic albums of balls to the wall, fist pumping heavy metal in the 80’s and early 90’s. They are a rare band who have retained mostly the same line up throughout their career with guitarist Jeff Duncan being the newest member (and by newest he joined the band in 1989!). The rest of the band - singer John Bush, bassist Joey Vera and brothers Gonzo Sandoval on the drums and Phil Sandoval on the guitars - have all been in the band since the very early days. Having played together for nearly 45 years, they all know what works with Armored Saint but also never sit comfortably and do the same album twice. As Joey Vera states ““Each Armored Saint record, to me, is like a new skin for the band, a different chapter. I don't think we've ever repeated ourselves. Every album has been pretty different from the previous one, a snapshot in time”.
“Emotion Factory Reset” is Armored Saint in 2026 - the ninth album from the band and a right shitkicker of an album that acknowledges the bands past and heritage but sounds vibrant and punchy for modern audiences. As John Bush puts it - “We can all take inspiration from our previous records, but that was a different time. Armored Saint don't want to make another March of the Saint. I want to keep moving forward, but we know who we are, it’s not like we're going to dish out the new trip hop, black metal, bluegrass album.”
The band continue to straddle the line between straight up heavy metal and hard rock but bring in influences from each members own listening tastes and the songs themselves vary from fist banging heavy metal tunes such as ‘Close To The Bone’, ‘Hit A Moonshoot’ and ‘Throwing Caution To The Wind’ to groovy rockers such as ‘It’s A Buzzkill’, ‘Ladders And Slides’ and ‘Bottom Feeder’. The band also go into softer territory with ‘Buckeye’ which sees deeply personal lyrics from John Bush and also the use of slide guitar by Jeff Duncan.
Armored Saint have been on a winning streak with recent albums such as “Win Hands Down” and “Punching The Sky” and that streak continues with “Emotion Factory Reset”. The band have never been in the upper echelons of the heavy metal hierarchy being more of a cult act with a dedicated fanbase but the quality has always been there. As John Bush himself states “Armored Saint don’t release an album every year, it’s about quality, not quantity. At the end of the day,as long as we feel it's great, that's the most important thing”. Hard to argue with that and “Emotion Factory Reset” is another great album chock full of hard rocking metal anthems with fantastic songwriting and amazing performances. Any self respecting old school rocker and metalhead should be all over this album.
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