ARMORED SAINT/Ex-ANTHRAX Singer JOHN BUSH: Metal Can Be Real 'Safe' Sometimes

On May 23, Jay Nanda of San Antonio Metal Music Examiner and AXS.com conducted an interview with former ANTHRAX and current ARMORED SAINT singer John Bush in San Antonio, Texas. You can now watch the chat below.

Bush, who was offered an opportunity to join METALLICA in the early '80s but turned it down, was asked how he thinks he would have felt about METALLICA's musical progression from the "…And Justice For All" album to the "black" album to "Load" and "Reload".

"That's a funny question," Bush responded. "You know, METALLICA is one of those bands that are so big — especially after the 'black' album — that the automatic thing for a lot of people was to have the backlash happen. Same thing kind of happened to a band like U2; after, like, what was it… 'Achtung Baby', there was gonna be this backlash because it just becameso massive. And I think it was easy to do that for METALLICA. But, the thing I always… and I'm not just blowing smoke… The truth of the matter is that the thing I really always respected about METALLICA is they were willing to do things and take chances, and sometimes people don't always follow along with the chances. And it's bold for a band to do that. I prefer a band to do that than to continue to play it safe and put out the same kind of material all the time and do something that's just kind of expected. I would rather have somebody say, 'Let's do something different, take a chance, write some music like this.'"

He continued: "You know, they [the METALLICA guys] all cut their hair [in the early '90s]. Possibly some of that was a little bit strategic… Maybe not… I don't know. But, at the end of the day, again, my favorite artists are ones that stick their neck out and don't [do things] conservatively. And it's funny, 'cause I notice metal… And the last thing we ever think about is metal being safe, but I think metal can be real safe sometimes. You know, the image, the style of music… Sometimes people just kind of go back to the drawing board all the time. And as a musician, I can't do that; it's just not fulfilling to me. So I feel like I would be kind of mailing it in if I did that. So I'd rather take a chance and have somebody go, 'I didn't like that, but it was different.' Then, you know, fair enough."

ARMORED SAINT will release its seventh studio album on June 2 in North America via Metal Blade. Titled "Win Hands Down", the CD was produced by bassist Joey Vera and mixed by Jay Ruston (ANTHRAX, STEEL PANTHER, STONE SOUR).