Review Summary: Not for the lack of trying.
Sometimes one song is enough to explain the whole album. It doesn’t have to be the best of the bunch, but the most characteristic of the album’s sound or, in this case, the issues that it faces. On paper, “Buckeye” should have been a very nice song. It is dedicated to John Bush’s daughter (he has a daughter and a son), her life and achievements. John is singing his heart out for this occasion, and you can tell from his voice and his lyrics that he really is a proud dad. But the song itself… well, the most interesting thing about it is that it is not a full-on ballad, as could be expected, and it contains some heavier parts. Other than that, it is one of those songs that are just… there. It’s just a semi-ballad with a slight country flavor. There’s nothing remarkable about its riffs or melodies, and in fact the song leaves a rather amorphous impression when taken as a whole.
Now, did the band want to make such a nondescript song about their singer’s own kid? No, on the contrary, I’m sure they wanted to make something truly special. But apparently, this is the best they can do at this point. That’s the story of the whole album “Emotion Factory Reset” in a nutshell. You can see that the band’s members know their craft and their intentions were good. Over the album’s runtime, you’ll find yourself nodding encouragingly to a serviceable chorus, a nice melodic guitar lick, a competent riff or a crafty solo. Guitar solos are particularly good throughout the album, often stepping in to improve an otherwise mediocre song, such as “Every Man – Any Man.”
Or, in fact, (almost) any song on the album. Overall, there are maybe two or three songs that you can enjoy as a whole without having to sift through the bad parts to get to the good ones. Of course, John does his best to sell these songs, but there are limits to what he can do. Otherwise, well, the whole album feels under-cooked. Sometimes a song starts off strong, but that initial impulse soon dissolves into mediocrity. There’s a fair share of decent “meat and potato” riffs, but that’s not enough to make songs that actually work. You could probably say that I’m too harsh towards a good old dad-rock band that never quite made it into stardom, but I’m only writing this because I know they can do better, and I’m not ready to write Armored Saint off yet. Both “Win Hands Down” and “Punching the Sky” were genuinely strong and enjoyable releases. So, maybe the band needs a
real emotion factory reset to make a better album next time.
In humanitarian Mine Action there is an official standardized term “all reasonable efforts.” In essence, it means that any certified Mine Action operator undertakes to not do a half-assed job, but always make sure that they did everything in their power to provide full clearance of the mine contaminated area under their responsibility (i.e. that a road is now safe for civilian vehicles or a field can now be used by farmers as intended etc.). Alas, in music effort alone is not enough without some inspiration to back it up. Armored Saint spent several years and applied all reasonable efforts to make this album, but the end result sounds like they didn’t even try.
