ARTILLERY – When Death Comes

The Danish giants are back. Their comeback is much better than their first comb-B.A.C.K (Their first comeback album ten years ago) for sure. The band armed itself with a new skilled vocalist, Soren Adamsen, who only recently participated in Crystal Eyes’ great new album and, after its release, left the band to concentrate on Artillery. In addition to the new guy, the Stutzer brothers brought back their old band mates: Peter Thorslund is back to thrash the bass and Carsten Nielsen is back to create havoc in the drum section. Although Artillery are back without their powerful singer, Flemming Rønsdorf, and they went on drop D with the guitars, their old music is still there, the same old technicalities of unending riffs that just won’t die, same marvelous solos and the same energy that brought these guys fame in throughout the mid 1980s to early 1990s. When Death Comes, with hope, will not be another gate to a sort of break in the band’s career. This album should be a landmark for such releases.

Nevertheless, the band’s sound and production, both, which are groundbreaking, are a bit modern, many will still recognize some of their early motifs such as the harmonies and that weird, somewhat oriental sounding, lead guitar tunes. When Death Comes shows that even if the guys got older, they can still thrash their way through your head until you are hooked to them. Thrashers like “Sandbox Philosophy”, “Uniform” and the mayhemic killer “10,000 Devils” (A track which you can also find in video format) will easily remind you that nothing has passed on, it was just subdued for a little while and now the beast is back for the kill.

As a result of taking on a rather melodic type of a singer, it seemed that Artillery made a few adjustments in their material in order to let Soren have his way with various melodies around the album. Songs like “Damned Religion”, which preaches against any religious forcefulness, “When Death Comes” and “Delusions Of Grandeur” can be enlisted with some earlier songs of Artillery, maybe more from their classic By Inheritance, yet Soren adds a lot more of himself to them. His loud melodic voice contributes a lot and you will notice that he also tries to blend into the Thrash Metal figure by being more violent like while adding several raspy tones and even mini bits of growl. Without a doubt, this person can do anything with his voice if it concerns Heavy / Power / Thrash Metal approaches.

Without a doubt When Death Comes is a well-done comeback album, yet there are tracks that are not like the rest mentioned above. For example, the track “Rise Above It All”, which has power and aggression, seemed to get stuck in the middle by a repetitive riff. The other songs are nice indeed yet, they aren’t close to the mentioned ones.

Highlights: “When Death Comes”, “10,000 Devils”, “Damned Religion”, “Delusions Of Grandeur”, “Sandbox Philosophy” and “Uniform”.

Even if this album is not By Inheritance, it is still an Old School Metal punching machine and it breaks and cracks. Check this one out!