(Review by Alekos He Is The Rock Τouloumis)
With a musical career edging nearly 25 years, Danish thrashers ARTILLERY spring up from the slime of some 10-year recording absence and as recent children of Poland's Metal Mind (the label has offered a wide spectrum of excellent (re-)releases the last tears) they present their newest album entitled When Death Comes. Many of you, especially those that have 'studied' the band's deeds all these years, may wonder what ARTILLERY is capable of bringing on in the genre, since the legacy of albums like Terror Squad and By Inheritance constitutes some heavy and insuperable heritage for Thrash Metal music and, moreover, the members of the group are of not young age anymore.
Even if 1999's B.A.C.K. CD did actually cause some dissatisfaction among the fans' ranks, since it did not seem to present the real possibilities of the band, with this disk the Danes prove that their affair with good music is still open. Recruiting - recently - young singer Soren Adamsen in their camp, and keeping the rest of the classic lineup intact, ARTILLERY break loose with the self-titled cut, in which the guitar riffs are really recognizable and the drums are bulldozing. The tempos speed up, slow down, become melodic at one time, then to turn into some hellish form, the solos work is to-the-point and the vocals are clean with some elementary roaring. A nice song, indeed; well-worked and quite rich in duration (6 minutes).
Carrying on with Upon My Cross I Crawl, this tune bursts off with some traditional Terror Squad-era riffing and some fast mood. The fact that ARTILLERY reinforced some PRIMAL FEAR-meets-HEATHEN aesthetics in this specific piece is revolutionary and quite successful! Just pay attention and you'll get the idea. Third one in the row is 10,000 Devils, being the band's first video off the album since it sounds quite commercial (for the genre's likes, always). An oriental By Ingeritance-like intro is followed by a nice sharp riff (your head will roll enough!), fluent soloing and a melodic chorus; one of the album's best moments, to be honest.
Rise Above It All and Sandbox Philosophy are next, featuring a variety in speed. Both cuts are quite harsh and complex in their songwriting, still they are quite remarkable by any means. Now, the song that seems to be off-the-heap is probably Delusions Of Grandeur, since it sounds like some fast folk ballad in the vein of e.g. FALCONER. Quite an off-balance choice, in my poor opinion, that somehow spoils the excellent - till now - sequence of songs in the album. Not A Nightmare steps in and some Power Metal paths are now walked (imagine of - let's say - JACKAL), not - in fact - sounding better than a mediocre cut; the same goes for Damned Religion which can be treated as a filler to tell the truth.
Thankfully, Uniform sets things straight again by stepping both on some Power and Thrash Metal stones and re-fills the listener's appetite for some good music with its nice chorus and notable vibe. As for the epilogue, entitled The End, maybe it would be better for ARTILLERY not to include this song in the album, since it sounds like a modern Power Metal amalgam dressed in mediocrity.
To cut a long story short, the new creation of ARTILLERY is an album featuring many good but also enough mediocre moments. The band seems to be in some pretty good shape - they've been storming Europe quite often the last years - but the songwriting skills are below the expected level (compared to the band's past). Still, on second thought, all recent reunions made by Thrash Metal bands did not have something that ideal to demonstrate, thus let's just keep into consideration that a band once regarded as one of the godfathers of killer Thrash Metal riffs is back on the map and wish ARTILLERY will continue their contribution to our beloved music.