Review Summary: Armored Saint haven't sounded this good in a long, long time.
It's good to stick with your comfort zone sometimes. While risks tend to spice up things in life, being traditional and safe can be just as rewarding; you may not attain the same amount of satisfaction as you might have by taking a chance and experimenting, but there's often a lower rate of failure involved. Just ask Armored Saint; John Bush and co. have made an entire career of sticking to their 80s heavy metal guns and never altering their sound with each passing musical trend. Just like with Black Label Society, you know what to expect when digging into a new Armored Saint record: crunching riffs, shredding solos with lots of blues and neoclassical influence, harmonized melodies, high energy throughout, and of course there's John Bush's charismatic singing that's both gruff and varied. So does
Win Hands Down continue these trends? You betcha!
However, it seems that there's some much needed new life injected into the band's sound this time around. Sure, the traditional 80s metal influences are there as usual, but the songwriting is much stronger here than in 2010's
La Raza. As the opening title track bursts right out of the gate with intense guitar distortion and an aggressive snare-driven drum fill, the main riff chugs and you get what sounds like a combination of old-school thrash a la Megadeth and modern power metal. It's epic and it really sets the tone for the whole experience. Guitarists Jeff Duncan and Phil Sandoval are in top form, with flurries of Iron Maiden-inspired harmonies littering each song and lightning-fast shredding running rampant. There are also some neat progressive moments here and there, such as the rhythmically off-kilter neoclassical riff of "An Exercise of Debauchery" or the more complex and introspective dynamic build-up of mini-epic "Muscle Memory."
But where this album shines is in how fun it is. It's clear that many of the moments on
Win Hands Down showcase Armored Saint's desire to progress with their established sound, but the best moments here are the ones that provide straight-up headbanging material from beginning to end. The main single "Mess" as well as "That Was Then, Way Back When" are perfect examples of this, especially the latter with its chugging thrash-oriented riff and the chants of the song's title during the chorus. Many of the tunes on here function perfectly as full-on anthems, and the excellent instrumentation is just icing on the cake. The rhythm section is also fantastic, with longtime Armored Saint stalwarts drummer Gonzo Sandoval and bassist Joey Vera providing both muscle and complexity to their roles and playing off the guitarists wonderfully. Unfortunately, there is one major problem with
Win Hands Down and it's something that plagues numerous Armored Saint albums: how homogeneous things get after a while. There's quite a bit of variety on the album, but not quite enough to justify multiple seven-minute songs and a relatively long overall running time. That is, until the masterpiece known as "Up Yours." This is one of the best songs I've heard in modern metal; the main descending riff is always compelling, the vocals are extremely powerful and charismatic, and the guitar solo is among the best of this decade so far. I'm not kidding... the song is that good.
Win Hands Down is quite shocking in its quality. I suppose only time will tell if it will maintain such staying power, but as it stands, this is Armored Saint's best album since
Raising Fear. It might not remain compelling throughout every minute of its runtime, and it does certainly tread old ground, but it ends up being a great mix of the traditional and the modern. In a current metal scene in which bands like Avenged Sevenfold and Bullet for My Valentine are worshipping Iron Maiden and Metallica left and right, it's nice to hear something from some real veterans who can show them how classic heavy metal is done.
