Whenever there is a mention of the Danish Thrash Metal band ARTILLERY, I clearly state that it should have been way bigger in fame than it came to be. I have no idea if it concerns business oriented decisions that eventually led to the band's current status or mainly the members felt that the band isn't a career to live on, these ideas don't really matter to me. Ever since the mid-80s, barging into the heated European Metal scene, ARTILLERY slowly became an icon, a pioneer in Europe for an above normal kind of Thrash Metal, which was, and still is, a pictorial of skilled musicianship and high quality songwriting.

More than 30 years since the band's inception, the British Label Dissonance Productions decided to reissue ARTILLERY's first two offerings, such tokens of Metallic history that made them. "Fear Of Tomorrow", originally released in 1985 via the iconic British label, Neat Records, officially presented a leathery spiked fist of what Denmark has to offer in the slowly combusting Thrash Metal subgenre.

True that ARTILLERY has been known as a sort of technical driven Metal band, instigating constructive form of riff composition and moderately assorted song structures, however, "Fear Of Tomorrow", through its majestic rawness, shared a different picture of what is presented for example on the later "By Inheritance". The album displays a three year running band, still considered a newcomer, but with visions into a bright future of look forward beyond the horizon. The energetic music demonstrates a fusion of NWOBHM, sparks of crooked Punk and destructive Speed Metal assault, a playground for a show of tantalizing force, high quality executions of might and musical appreciation. What I also liked about "Fear Of Tomorrow" is that ARTILLERY entrusted themselves to what has always sounded to me like the US Metal aggressive sound pattern of the early Power / Thrash Metal bands, with METALLICA and SLAYER being the prime examples. Such an addictive form of sound, even in the unpolished values of this release, are a true pleasure.

ARTILLERY's "Fear Of Tomorrow" evolved to become an urge to be slightly more original than the other bands that were playing at the time, especially the upcoming starlets of the Bay Area wave. Of course that it was only the first step in a long process, which I believe finally bore fruit on "By Inheritance". The blood boiled "King, Thy Name Is Slayer" and "Into the Universe" are merciless, storming with menace into one's brains, yet "Out of the Sky" is there to command as the band's crown jewel out of the album, a riff master of pure genius. And there comes the darkest seducer, "Deeds of Darkness", thick by its heaviness, it showcases a charging up intro that slowly leads into a bashful maw of a volcano, erupting with rage, surely one of the band's challenging tune musically.

Plenty of Thrash Metal bands back in 1985 have already sunk their teeth in the Metal scenes worldwide, "Fear Of Tomorrow" nonetheless, forced the newbie Thrash Metal followers to look deeper, beyond the generic form.