John Bush is back with the band that put him on the map and it’s a pretty darn good return too. After five great, hugely underappreciated albums with the mighty Anthrax, John has reunited with Armored Saint. His return and Armored Saints’ are quite impressive and quite welcome.

The first four Armored Saint albums were inconsistent at best although they did have a gem or two on nearly every album. La Raza is a much more consistently strong effort than any of their five previous studio recordings and has some top notch moments.  In fact, Armored Saint sounds like hard rock dipped in a sliver of hot salsa on this cd. Very, very cool tunes. Heavy, rolling, grooves injected with the trademark John Bush delivery.

I really like this album. It has a refreshing sound that reminds me of how pliable hard rock and heavy metal can be in the right hands. How you can take metal, put your own stamp on it, and have some rip, roaring fun. In fact, this is my favorite Armored Saint album now and may earn a place in my year end best of list.

Published by rbtaleman

Heavy metal (fiend/friend?) Writer, frustrat(or), frustrat(ee), decorated U.S. Navy veteran, Husband(twice), father(three times), grandfather(of seven), FM radio veteran, Concertgoer, music collector, muscle car aficianado. Grown up since five. Child since 45. View all posts by rbtaleman