ARMORED SAINT's Long-Awaited Documentary To Receive World Premiere In Hollywood

ARMORED SAINT's long-awaited documentary, Armored Saint: Band Of Brothers", will have its world premiere in the band's hometown on Tuesday, May 23 at the Harmony Gold Theatre in Hollywood, California. Director Russell Cherrington will attend to introduce the film and hold a question-and-answer session after the film with members of the group.

Armored Saint: Band Of Brothers" celebrates the 40-year career of ARMORED SAINT and the 50-year friendship the bandmembers have shared from school in El Sereno, a Los Angeles suburb.

Many friends of the band have given interviews, James Hetfield and Lars Ulrich from METALLICA tell tales of their early days touring, Scott Ian of ANTHRAX talks about seeing ARMORED SAINT in 1985, QUEENSRŸCHE members Eddie Jackson and Todd La Torre talk about the shared history. Key music industry figures and producers, A&R men, roadies, record label executives and family share thoughts and stories about the band's 40-year history.

Tickets are on sale now for fans and include a commemorative ticket and an exclusive A3 poster. Get your tickets at Eventbrite.

Last October, ARMORED SAINT singer John Bush told "The Bay Ragni Show" about the band's documentary: "Well, Russell [Cherrington], who's the man in charge of that and the guy who actually put it all together — it's kind of his baby — he was doing some final editing. I think we were micromanaging it, but yet at the same time trying not to, because it is his thing. He got some amazing interviews with some people that I was really surprised that he was able to interview — people like Cliff Bernstein, who was our manager in our early days, and Ron Fair, who signed us to Chrysalis, Brian Slagel [head of Metal Blade Records], Lars [Ulrich] and James [Hetfield of METALLICA were interviewed for] it, and also Scott Ian [ANTHRAX], [producer] Max Norman, among many others. So it was really, really cool. It was really awesome, and I do think it would be amazing for that to come out."

Regarding what took so long to complete the film, Bush said: "It's just there was some footage that kind of seemed a little redundant that was a little too much. You know what? The interview parts are some of the best parts, and I love all that. It was just some of the footage. We were trying to say, 'You've already showed this. You've already showed this.' And there's plenty of footage of ARMORED SAINT through the years and even recently. That being said, I think that he was kind of working with it along with his own life; he has his own thing going on. So he was kind of doing it as a labor of love and trying to get it done when he had the opportunity."

"Armored Saint: Band Of Brothers" will also reportedly feature interviews with Bill Metoyer (engineer, producer),John Kornarens (music video director),John Sutherland (friend),Bob Nalbandian (friend),Tracy Vera (Metal Blade Records),Mike Faley (Metal Blade Records),Zach Harmen (METALLICA, ARMORED SAINT tech),and many other family and friends.

Three years ago, ARMORED SAINT bassist Joey Vera told Ireland's Overdrive about "Armored Saint: Band Of Brothers": "It's not directly involved with us, but we do have periphery involvement with it.

"There is a friend of the band who lives in the U.K. and he's also been a longtime fan of the band. He's based in or near Newcastle. He's a filmmaker and also a teacher at the local university. He's done a bunch of cool short films. I've even worked with him on some music for some of his films. Anyway, he approached us with the idea of producing a documentary about the band's history. I said, 'Go for it. I don't want to be micromanaging this project, so you tell your story of how you see us [ARMORED SAINT], and if you need any recordings, or information, etc., then give me a shout.'"

He added: "I'm very much looking forward to seeing the finished project when it's ready. We supplied him with a lot of very old VHS performances, photos and interviews, etc., so there's loads of stuff that has never been seen before. I hope it all turns out great for him.

"I have a very weird thing about being associated with something that's about myself, if you know what I mean. I feel like it shouldn't be that way, like, 'Hey, look at this movie I made about myself.' [Laughs] I'm trying to stay out of it as much as I can.

"To be honest, I don't know how much of a story we have to the average person, but for those who know of us, or have an interest in that whole scene, then I'm sure they will really enjoy it."

ARMORED SAINT's eighth full-length album, "Punching The Sky", came out in October 2020 via Metal Blade Records.

ARMORED SAINT released the "Symbol Of Salvation Live" CD/DVD in 2021 via Metal Blade Records. The release came in celebration of the seminal album's 30th anniversary. "Symbol Of Salvation Live" was a combination live album and video of the band playing the album in its entirety at New York City's famed Gramercy Theatre during its 2018 tour.

Photo by Travis Shinn