This July/August, Armored Saint will embark on a North American tour, commemorating their classic Symbol Of Salvation album. On this special run, the band will perform Symbol Of Salvation in its entirety, with select shows to be recorded for a live DVD.
Front-man John Bush comments, “Symbol Of Salvation, arguably Armored Saint’s most important record. These songs came out of us being dropped from Chrysalis Records and finding out about guitarist Dave Prichard developing Leukemia. The songs took on a much more emotional meaning than any other previous record. We wrote songs of desperation like Another Day and Last Train Home. Experimental tunes like Tainted Past and The Truth Always Hurts. Classic Saint rockers like Reign of Fire, Dropping Like Flies and the title track. After Dave passed, the band regrouped with Phil and Jeff returning as the guitar tandem. It was a family again. Dave Jerden produced the record and this marked the beginning of Joey becoming the producer of the band. It’s going to be a memorable tour. Songs like Burning Question and Spineless, we’ve never played live before. Come share it with us. Let’s make Dave proud.”
Labelmates Act Of Defiance will join Armored Saint on this trek. See below for all dates.
Armored Saint Symbol Of Salvation tour dates w/ Act Of Defiance:
July 10 – Poughkeepsie, NY – The Chance
July 11 – Sellersville, PA – Sellersville Theater
July 13 – New York, NY – The Gramercy Theatre
July 14 – Boston, MA – Brighton Music Hall
July 15 – Montreal, QC – Petite Campus
July 17 – Toronto, ON – Mod Club
July 18 – Cleveland, OH – The Cambridge at House of Blues
July 20 – Detroit, MI – Shelter
July 21 – Chicago, IL – Reggie’s
July 22 – Milwaukee, WI – Shank Hall
Aug. 16 – Las Vegas, NV – Count’s Vamp’d
Aug. 17 – Anaheim, CA – Parish at House of Blues
Aug. 18 – Los Angeles, CA – The Regent
To further celebrate the legacy of this album, Metal Blade Records will re-issue Symbol Of Salvation on CD and LP on May 18th. The LP will feature a vinyl remastering from Patrick W. Engel as part of the “Metal Blade Originals” series. Special treatment and 400g heavy cardboard spine sleeves (inside out print), 60x60cm two-sided artwork posters and 250g inserts guaranteed! The CD will include 4 bonus tracks. See below for an overview of all versions and track-listings.
–CD (tour edition digipak w/ 4 bonus tracks)
–180g black vinyl
–dark red maroon marbled vinyl (limited to 300 copies – EU exclusive)
–clear red/purple/black/white splattered vinyl (limited to 200 copies – EU exclusive)
–violet rosy brown marbled vinyl (limited to 300 copies – USA exclusive)
–pastel pink lilac marbled vinyl (limited to 200 copies – USA exclusive)
CD track-listing:
1. Reign of Fire
2. Dropping Like Flies
3. Last Train Home
4. Tribal Dance
5. The Truth Always Hurts
6. Half Drawn Bridge
7. Another Day
8. Symbol of Salvation
9. Hanging Judge
10. Warzone
11. Burning Question
12. Tainted Past
13. Spineless
14. Medieval Nightmares (Demo)
15. Get Lost (Demo)
16. Toungue and Cheek (Demo)
17. Pirates (Demo)
Vinyl track-listing:
Side A:
1. Reign of Fire
2. Dropping Like Flies
3. Last Train Home
4. Tribal Dance
5. The Truth Always Hurts
6. Half Drawn Bridge
7. Another Day
Side B:
8. Symbol of Salvation
9. Hanging Judge
10. Warzone
11. Burning Question
12. Tainted Past
13. Spineless
Pre-order your copies now at Indie Merch EMP, or eBay – with an exclusive t-shirt.
After being dropped by Chrysalis Records in 1988, Armored Saint began writing for a new record and searched for a new label. During 1989, founding guitarist, songwriter Dave Prichard was diagnosed with Leukemia. In January 1990, Dave went into the hospital for a bone marrow transplant but succumbed to the treatment, passing away on Feb 28th, 1990. By this time, the band was writing as a 4-piece, with Dave being the sole guitarist; they had written 25 songs and demoed all of them.
Metal Blade Records CEO/founder Brian Slagel approached Armored Saint and offered a recording deal in late Spring of 1990. They regrouped with original guitarist Phil Sandoval and Jeff Duncan, who was hired as a touring guitarist during a 1989 tour with King Diamond. Recording of this new album – which would become Symbol Of Salvation – began in winter of 1990 with producer Dave Jerdan (Alice in Chains, Janes Addiction, Red Hot Chili Peppers), and it was engineered by Brain Carlstrom (Alice in Chains, The Offspring, Rob Zombie). During recording, the band used a guitar solo from a demo track played by Dave, and included it on the song “Tainted Past”.
Armored Saint went on to tour with the likes of The Scorpions, Suicidal Tendencies, Wrathchild America, Sepultura, and more, in support of Symbol Of Salvation. Now, in 2018, the band is bringing back these classic tracks to the live setting, for fans to enjoy once again, in honor of Dave’s memory.
Armored Saint online:
3 Responses
Hell yes! The March of the Saint is on!!! I’ll try to make the trek to Anaheim to see this show. I saw a show on the original Symbol of Salvation tour in 1991. Great show by a great band! One of the bands that I think should have had a lot more success than they did!
Symbol is a great Armored Saint album and a great tribute to Dave Pritchard, who has songwriting credits on a lot of the album, even though he didn’t participate in its recording (save for the demo guitar solo).
Armored Saint usually doesn’t tour regularly, so the fact their touring again so soon after finishing their tour for Win Hands Down (another great album) is pretty cool. I didn’t expect to have the opportunity to see them again so soon, so it’s pretty special this tour will be happening.
Saw them a couple years ago with Saxon. Both bands were great but Saint was killer. Probably still one of my favorite shows. Can’t say enough about them. John Bush still kills it. Grossly underappreiciated band.
Master, I saw same Saxon/Saint tour. And I echo your comments. Before the gig, we could hear John Bush in the dressing room warming up his voice and singing the lyrics to Win Hands Down. And I got a chance to speak to guitarist Jeff Duncan after the show. Seemed like a cool guy. We spoke about Saint and his previous band, Odin. He didn’t seem too interested in talking about Odin.