ALBUM COVER STORY: ARMORED SAINT's "EMOTION FACTORY RESET"

American Heavy Metal veterans, Armored Saint, just announced the release of their upcoming new album, "Emotion Factory Reset."

The cover artwork was digitally designed by graphic artist, DDKing. The main element of this graphic is a medieval knight that has been featured (in various guises) on the covers of some of the band's previous records. "We recognize we have an association with the imagery of a knight because we have used that on a few of our covers and even in merchandising," comments bassist Joey Vera.

"We played on the whole 'reset' aspect," Vera continues. "In my view, every time we make a new record, it's a new birth of sorts. A tearing down and rebuilding ourselves each time so that we give birth to something new or different. I was taking the idea of what Kali, the Hindu Goddess is. She destroys in order to liberate or renew. The fire you see is a representation of that destruction. The viewer is catching the knight during his shedding of old skin, and you can see he is not yet whole, and he is holding the flame as a way to show he is harnessing the change in himself. He's like a butterfly coming out of a cocoon."

Vera reveals that the original cover sketches were created with AI. However, he assures that DDKing created the definitive artwork digitally "until we were happy."

"Emotion Factory Reset" will be released on May 22 through Metal Blade Records. Pre-order at https://www.metalblade.com/armoredsaint/