Armored Saint bassist Joey Vera is featured in a career-spanning interview with The Black Siren. Following is an excerpt from the in-depth discussion:

The dawn of their career promised a set of strong wings to be able to soar along side the NWOBHM eagles, but because of their progressive edge to their straight up Metal, the infant industry was at a loss on how to sell them, which kept them, essentially, earthbound.

“We didn’t realize how restless we were as songwriters,” he explained. “We’ve always wanted to do almost all of it.  We wanted to write a thrash song, we wanted to hang with the trash boys. We wanted to hang with the more commercial boys. We wanted to hang with the art boys. We wanted to hang with the funky boys, We wanted to hang with the bluesy-rock boys. We wanted to do all of it. We’re just kind of on our own island, basically.”

Such is the way with family, as well. “Gonzo and John and myself have known each other since we were nine years old.  Our blood goes way deep, we are like family. And you know how it is when you do business with family, it’s really difficult sometimes.”

Yet, for everything there is a place and time. For Armored Saint, it seemed their potential was within reach.  Just as they had signed with Metal Blade and began to work on their fourth release, they were challenged with the fall of their band brother, Dave Prichard, to leukemia. Getting back on their feet, they found a replacement, ex-Odin guitarist Jeff Duncan, and Symbol of Salvation was released in 1991.

The critics loved it. The fans loved it. But, it didn’t sell. “We were young and we didn’t know yet how to have that relationship with business people who are much older than us. Mind you, our first record came out when we were all 20 years old, so we didn’t know. We had no experience in even how to sick to our own guns really.”

Go to this location for the complete interview.

This Friday, February 24th, Armored Saint will release their new live album, Carpe Noctem, via Metal Blade Records.

Having toured with Metallica, Whitesnake, Alice Cooper, Scorpions, and many other artists since their inception in the early '80s, Armored Saint has always been a highly regarded live act - not only in their hometown of Los Angeles, but also around the world. The only official release to capture this, however, is 1989's live album, Saints Will Conquer - until now, with Carpe Noctum, which was recorded at the band's 2015 Wacken festival set, as well as their headlining show in Aschaffenburg, Germany.

For another preview of Carpe Noctum, a live video for “Last Train Home” from Wacken Open Air can be viewed  below.

The album can also be pre-ordered in various formats and bundles at PledgeMusic, with every "pledge" / purchase receiving a digital download of the tracks, plus behind-the-scenes content (including footage from Wacken 2015, plus 2016's Ozzfest and Queensrÿche appearances, and more).

Carpe Noctum tracklisting:

“Win Hands Down” (Live)
“March Of The Saint” (Live)
“Stricken By Fate” (Live)
“Last Train Home” (Live)
“Mess” (Live)
“Aftermath” (Live)
“Left Hook From Right Field” (Live)
“Reign Of Fire” (Live)

“Last Train Home” (Live) video:

“March Of The Saint” (Live) video:

“Aftermath” (Live) video:

In regards to the PledgeMusic campaign, Armored Saint comments: "Why PledgeMusic? Our fans have been extremely supportive over the years. We want to share the process of realizing this project with you by giving you the chance to be a part of it, from start to finish. How does it work? You place your orders here and when the album is released, you will get your items in the mail. But throughout the process, you will have access to the regular updates that we will post on this page."

Armored Saint will return to Ireland and the UK this March (appearing in some cities for the first time!), before playing select USA dates in May. Joey Vera (bass) comments: "We're really looking forward to playing these select UK shows in March. We've never played in Dublin, Manchester, Birmingham or Wales, so we're super excited to play in these places - as well as in Belfast, which we'd played only once before. We get a lot of requests from our UK fan base and since we were offered the headline spot at Hammerfest, we decided to hit some of these other UK cities. So, here we go!"

Armored Saint tour dates:

March
20 - Voodoo - Dublin, Ireland
21 - The Limelight - Belfast, Ireland
23 - HammerFest - Gwynedd, N. Wales, UK
24 - The Rebellion - Manchester, UK
25 - O2 Academy 3 - Birmingham, UK

May
18 - Route 20 Outhouse - Sturtevent, WI
19 - Q and Z Expo Center - Ringle, WI
20 - Reggie's Rock Club - Chicago, IL