Friday, May 27, 2016

920. Armored Saint / 2009 Australian Tour Compilation. 2009. 4/5



To mark the first tour to Australia by the mighty Armored Saint, this package was released for all of us Australian fans, according to Blabbermouth to offset the fact that most of the Saint's back catalogue was impossible to source in our corner of the world. In many ways this was true, though the internet had improved this remarkably in recent years.

The album was loosely described as a greatest hits contribution, taking some of the best known Armored Saint tracks and putting them together with some live tracks to flesh out the back end of the release and make it an attractive proposition. Which it undeniably is. Songs were sourced from every Armored Saint album to that point, with "March of the Saint", "Can U Deliver" (live) and "Madhouse" (live) from MARCH OF THE SAINT, "Long Before I Die" (live) and "Nervous Man" (live) from DELIRIOUS NOMAD, "Chemical Euphoria" (live) from RAISING FEAR, "Reign of Fire", "Last Train Home", "Tribal Dance", "Symbol Of Salvation" and "Hanging Judge" from SYMBOL OF SALVATION, and "The Pillar" and "After Me, The Flood" from REVELATION.

Fans could probably argue over the validity of the songs chosen here as being a best of, but to be honest any fan who was going to see the band when they toured would already have had all the albums anyway. For anyone who is a newcomer to the band, this gives a good overview of the band's career to that point in time. What annoyed me more about this release was that I discovered it after the tour took place - a tour I had no idea was occurring. D'OH!

Rating:  "It's the March of the Saint!"   4/5.

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