Artillery-My Blood

Metal Mind
2011

Some shoes are bigger to fill than others. That's one of the first thoughts that comes to mind as I hear Søren Nico Adamsen fronting Artillery. Even though this is his second studio effort with the band there are still reviews calling him the "new singer". He has powerful voice and he did a fine job on 2009's When death comes. However the fact remains that former vocalist Flemming Rönsdorf had such a unique voice that he just made such a great impression on fans. One of the first things I think of when people mention Artillery was his shattering voice. Yet it's new day, a new line-up and a new album. I hate to keep jumping back to comparisons, but after hearing "My blood" several time I keep asking myself what exactly were they trying to accomplish here? I mean two years ago "When death comes" was a comeback album of sorts with a new singer and a lot of pressure should have been on them. It was a good album in the tradition of their earlier material. That should have been it, they were back on firm footing. Now another release less than two years later, again a good way to keep the momentum going. Then I listen to the album... holy smokes we have some problems. “Mi Sangre”,“Warrior Blood” and “End of Eternity” all come to my mind as the best songs here and they are quite good, but the bulk of the material had me shaking my head in disbelief. There's a lot of very basic riffs here which makes no sense because the Stützer brothers have long masters of the finger bending riffs, but this time around they are hot and cold. Okay, their lyrics have never been mind blowing, but this time around it feels like they just rushed out whatever popped into their minds first. Good golly there's even a ballad on this album! Don't get me wrong, I am all for new ideas and this band did a great job of injecting some different sounds on their 1990 album "By inheritances". There are still some meaty riffs and pounding beats throughout, but rarely do they hit that kind of flow they have conquered on most of their previous albums. Maybe I need to walk away from it come back and it will sound stronger at a later point. However I doubt it as I really think this just an alright album with some powerful points, but some major flaws as well.