Los Angeles California's ARMORED SAINT has entered the Billboard charts with La Raza, the band's latest and first release since 2001's Revelation.

La Raza debuted at #49 on the Hard Music Albums chart, #18 on the Heatseekers chart, #52 on the Top Independent Albums chart, and #2 on the Hard Music Core Stores chart.

La Raza also entered the official German album charts coming in at #96. In addition to hitting charts in both the US and Germany, the band also entered the Canadian charts coming in at #85 on the Independent chart.

La Raza is the band's first album since Revelation in 2000 and their sixth in total. The album's foundation was laid back in 2008 when Joey Vera and John Bush began writing new material for what would become La Raza and the album was completed in December at Tranzformer Studios in Burbank, CA. The album was produced by bassist Joey Vera, and engineered by Bryan Carlstrom and his assistant John Nuss. Recording was mostly done with analog equipment and the final album mix was delivered on 1 inch tape. This gives La Raza the most organic sound as possible.

Joey Vera comments on the packaging and creative aspect of La Raza: "Metal Blade is doing a really cool digi-pack package for us. We felt like the city of Los Angeles is such a big part of our fabric that we wanted to use that in the design of the artwork. So with the help of our good friend and photographer Stephanie Cabral and Brian Ames from the Metal Blade art department, we came up with a really cool package that represents our band and the music on this record. We also wanted to incorporate a green action by leaving out the plastic CD tray and using recycled paper. The result is a classy and poignant package."

La Raza tracklisting:

'Loose Cannon'

'Head On'

'Left Hook from Right Field'

'Get Off the Fence'

'Chilled'

'La Raza'

'Black Feet'

'Little Monkey'

'Blues'

'Bandit Country'

Armored Saint ocalist John Bush and bassist Joey Vera show off their kitchen skills while talking about their new album, La Raza, in the following videos courtesy of Metal Blade TV:

Go to this location to check out BW&BK;'s new interview with Armored Saint bassist Joey Vera.