“It was a death sentence in the 80s. His illness and our whole future being so uncertain propelled us towards not worrying if something was completely out of the box”: The heartbreaking tragedy that produced a cult early 90s metal anthem

Armored Saint posing for a photograph in the early 1990s.

By the end of the 1980s, Armored Saint were beginning to wonder if the world was conspiring against them. Formed in Los Angeles in 1982, they had released three widely acclaimed studio albums and become major players in the burgeoning US metal underground. What they definitely hadn’t done was conquer the rest of the world: an oversight vocalist John Bush wearily attributes to the fact that Armored Saint didn’t tour Europe or the UK until much later in their career.

Perhaps surprisingly, then, Bush and his bandmates – bassist Joey Vera, guitarists Dave Prichard and Jeff Duncan and drummer Gonzo Sandoval – were only one year away from recording what would become their biggest and most celebrated album, Symbol Of Salvation. But as they began
to contemplate penning a follow-up to 1987’s Raising Fear, all was definitely not rosy in the Armored Saint camp.