On the Third LP, the Saints Rose Again (Raising Fear - Armored Saint)

Member Name: Frankingsteins

Product:	Raising Fear - Armored Saint
Date:	28/01/08 (10 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Perfection of the band's style, with great guitars and vocals and some timeless classics.

Disadvantages: Songs tend towards over-repetition, and end of the album is less noticeable.

L.A.'s Armored Saint recorded a heavy metal classic with their third album 'Raising Fear,' and it's sadly the only section of their discography to stand up over time, with allowances made for the earlier debut. This time Pritchard and Sandoval's guitars are heavier, mightier and tighter than ever before, and John Bush's wails are back to full force after slipping in the second album. While most of the songs still follow the pathfinder of Judas Priest's work several years earlier, there's now a distinct Armored Saint touch that makes most of these songs excellent, and the rest only less excellent by comparison.

This isn't the most original heavy metal album around, the songs tend to get repetitive and the extended length of fifty-two minutes compared to the usual forty can affect the listener's attention span by the time the final songs come around, but with solemn epics 'Isolation' and 'Legacy' balanced out by the pounding 'Raising Fear' and the bluesy, melodic 'Crisis of Life' and 'Terror,' there's something here for fans of all strands of classic metal, even if the album came along a little too late (if it had been any earlier, there wouldn't have been a template to copy).

'Isolation' and 'Frozen Will (Legacy)' are certainly the stand-out tracks here, and share commonalities in their slower pace, clean guitars and powerful, booming choruses, all instruments audibly carrying the instrumental sections along between the epic narrative verses spanning the entirety of history. These songs are just the right length, not suffering from the same tedium as some of the other songs after the four minute mark but eager to throw out new ideas, while the inevitable final reprise of the chorus is always eagerly awaited.

The rest of the album follows a fairly similar pattern of heavy guitars, compelling choruses and plenty of guitar solos, and although it becomes a little samey after a while and the later songs suffer as a result, this doesn't affect the quality of the tracks on an individual basis. The vocals are always excellent, apart from a brief flirtation with a weird, screechier style thankfully confined to 'Human Vulture' (perhaps Bush was imitating such a creature?), and the guitar solos never seem out of place or just for show.

1. Raising Fear
2. Saturday Night Special
3. Out on a Limb
4. Isolation
5. Chemical Euphoria
6. Crisis of Life
7. Frozen Will (Legacy)
8. Human Vulture
9. Book of Blood
10. Terror
11. Underdogs

Summary: Armored Saint's third album (1987).