Artillery-By Inheritance

Metal Mind
1990/2008



In 1990 Denmark's Artillery released their third album. It is a departure from both “Fear of Tomorrow” and “Terror Squad”, but it succeeds in being their most ambitious effort to date. The previous two albums were awesome displays of bludgeoning, straight forward thrash. However, it had been three years since Terror Squad and Artillery were ready to spread out and take a few chances. They became a much more technical band on this release.The album begins with the 7:00 From Tashkent an introduction with Middle-Eastern influences. Right away this let's us know that the band had made some changes in their approach. Next up is "Khomaniac" which has a long build-up, but then tears into a rapid fire approach. "Beneath the clay (R.I.P) " emerges with a barrage of drums and then cuts and swerves through a storm of riffs and raging vocals. By this point it's obvious that this is Artillery only now they were bringing even more to the tables. The title track and "Bombfood" follow a similar pattern as Artillery start stacking up the layers of guitars and just surge forward with a constant assault of heaviness. My favorite track might by the closer "Back in the trash" because it contains enough riffs for three good songs. They know how to structure the song though and get the most out of each note. The only song I couldn't get into is their cover of Nazareth's " Razamanaz". It's an okay cover, but it's the second to last track and breaks up the feel of the album. The album had a great flow going and this cover songs really seemed out of place. This re-issue also has six bonus tracks including some demo tracks. Former Metallice producer Flemming Rasmussen produced it and fortunately the treatment is closer to "Master of puppets" than it is to his work on "...And justice for all". "By Inheritance" is just a fantastic album that much like this band was just unfairly overlooked. Artillery knew how to created some of the best thrash of it's time plus they actually progressed over the course of three albums. Definitely a must buy for thrash fans because you will not be disappointed.