Artillery-When death comes

Metal Mind
2009

I'll be straight forward so this is definitely one of the top 2009 releases that I have been looking forward to. There are not a lot of thrash bands that I feel this way about, but these guys have never really gotten their due. Each of their first four releases were powerful entries with 1990's "By Inheritance" being their best offering to date. I think they had an influence on bands like Sodom, Dark Angel and maybe even Slayer at one point early on. This band has faced the obstacle of having long gaps between releases before as it was nine long years between "By Inheritance" and "B.A.C.K". So this time around it's a ten year stretch, but that's no big deal. I am sure the biggest question in the mind of every Artillery fan was would newcomer Søren Nico Adamsen be able to fill the shoes of Flemming Rönsdorf. Every Artillery album has featured and benefited from having Flemming on vocals. His voice unique to thrash and very much helped to define this band over the years. Søren has a different vocal style, but there is no denying that he is a terrific fit for this band. His voice has a touch more clarity and perhaps he even more direct in his approach. The change is seamless as he didn't just fit, but rather he stormed in and is helped the band forge ahead. They are not quite as experimental this time around as they were on "By Inheritance". Still they possess the ability to slam you back with a mountain of cutting riffs and pounding rhythms. Despite having long gaps between the last few albums I have never thought of Artillery as doing a comeback because they never seem to have lost a step so I never really question them. This isn't going to win over a great of new fans perhaps, but it will certainly thrill fans of killer old style thrash.