Armored Saint: On The March For 30 Years

It's hard to believe now, but when this album was released, people thought Armored Saint would be bigger than Metallica. The album actually sold 125,000 copies in America by the end of 84, but things never really happened for the band. One problem was that they never toured at the time in Europe, despite the clamour for live dates. But three decades on, the album still holds up remarkably well. To paraphrase the band's most well known song: Can Armored Saint deliver? Yes!

* Both bassist Joey Vera and vocalist John Bush turned down the chance at varying times of joining Metallica.

The band paid for their first demo from money Vera received after being injured in a road accident. He was the passenger in a car being driven by Tommy Lee. They were bandmates in Sapphire at the time.
Vera and Bush first teamed up in a school band called Rhapsody.

* Drummer Gonzo came up with the band name, inspired by the movie Excalibur.

The band made their recording debut on the compilation Metal Massacre II. They had a track on it called Lesson Well Learned. Trauma were also on the album, and they featured future Metallica bassist Cliff Burton. Another band worth mentioning from Metal Massacre II are Aloha, who had guitarist Marty Friedman, who later joined Megadeth.
One of the band’s earliest songs was titled You Suck My Anal Dry. But this was never properly recorded.
Armored Saint released a self-titled EP on Metal Blade, before signing to Chrysalis.

* The band recorded March Of The Saint at Ocean Way Studios in Los Angeles. At the same time, both Supertramp and Barbara Streisand were working on records. Odd that neither ask the Saint to guest!

They fell out with MOTS producer Michael James Jackson when he told them he didn’t like Black Sabbath.
Armored Saint’s first full tour was opening for Quiet Riot and Whitesnake in America. Their next one was with Metallica and W.A.S.P. The band had the same management as Metallica.

Read about Joey Vera’s year of agony

Malcolm Dome had an illustrious and celebrated career which stretched back to working for Record Mirror magazine in the late 70s and Metal Fury in the early 80s before joining Kerrang! at its launch in 1981. His first book, Encyclopedia Metallica, published in 1981, may have been the inspiration for the name of a certain band formed that same year. Dome is also credited with inventing the term "thrash metal" while writing about the Anthrax song Metal Thrashing Mad in 1984. With the launch of Classic Rock magazine in 1998 he became involved with that title, sister magazine Metal Hammer, and was a contributor to Prog magazine since its inception in 2009. He died in 2021.