Armored Saint fans can finally mark their calendars for a new release in 2026. In a recent update, vocalist John Bush confirmed that the veteran heavy metal band has officially finished work on their long-awaited ninth studio album.
Speaking in a new interview with Meltdown of Detroit’s WRIF radio station, Bush revealed that the follow-up to 2020’s Punching The Sky is fully recorded and mastered. While the band is waiting on the official green light from Metal Blade Records to announce the title, the singer expressed immense confidence in the final product.
“It is done. It’s mastered and completed,” Bush confirmed (as transcribed by Blabbermouth). “The record’s great. It sounds awesome. And we just kind of keep thinking steps up as far as our style and just our whole trip.”
He continued, placing the new material in the context of their recent resurgence: “I’m really proud of what Armored Saint has done for the last couple of records… [2015’s] Win Hands Down was the second-to-the-last record, and then the last one was [2020’s] Punching The Sky, which is a great album, and this new one, it just kind of keeps building on that.”
One notable shift for this album was a deliberate effort to tighten the songwriting. According to Bush, the band received specific feedback from their label to avoid their tendency toward complex pieces.
“Sometimes Armored Saint has a tendency to write songs a little too long,” Bush admitted. “And then our label was saying, like, ‘Come on, man. Shorter tunes. Shorter tunes.’ And we were, like, ‘Okay, okay. We’re gonna focus on shorter songs,’ which is just come in with a slug in the face and make it brief, which we did, actually.”
However, Bush drew a line when it came to the total number of tracks. While the songs may be shorter, he refused to cut the tracklist down to accommodate vinyl formatting limitations, insisting that the fans deserved a full serving of music after a six-year wait.
“At one point Joey [Vera, bassist] was saying, ‘Well, we might only have certain amount of songs ’cause of vinyl.’ I was, like, ‘No way. We haven’t put out a record in six years. We cannot put out nine songs. Our fans will kill us if we do that… So it’s gonna be at least 11 tunes.”
Regarding a specific release date, Bush hinted that the album is tentatively scheduled for the spring.
“We were supposed to have a date of April 8th or [April] 9th, but I don’t know if that’s still in play. So I’m probably still saying way more than I’m supposed to,” he joked.
The band is also gearing up for a busy touring schedule to support the release, including a reunion of sorts on the European festival circuit.
“We have some stuff booked in Europe for next summer… and we’re doing some dates with Savatage, which is gonna be really cool,” Bush said. “That’s a band from our era… The first time we ever went to Europe was with Savatage… So I’m really excited to go out there and play a couple shows with those guys.”
