Revelation＜Violet Vinyl＞

With some downtime from Anthrax on his hands, vocalist John Bush got together with ex-Armored Saint bassist Joey Vera and decided to reconvene the Saint's Symbol of Salvation-era lineup. The resulting album, Revelation, picks up where Symbol of Salvation left off; it's a solid, tightly performed, traditional heavy metal record that draws on the spirit, if not the speed or sound, of '80s thrash and, to a degree, British metal. It's very recognizably Armored Saint, and most of their fans will be happy enough to have them back that they probably won't be disappointed with it; that said, there's evidence that the band had some difficulty in coming up with enough grade-A material, as some of the songs fail to make much of an impression even in spite of the committed performances. Still, there's an aura of solid professionalism about the record that renders it at least listenable throughout, and sometimes that's enough. ~ Steve Huey