Artillery – My Blood

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Now on their second album with latest singer Søren Adamsen, Denmark’s stop-start thrash veterans Artillery have delivered not only arguably their finest album, but the first truly great thrash album of 2011 – beating Havok’s sophomore release by a week. Anyone looking for reference points needs to imagine more than one. For opener Mi Sangre (The Blood Song), and later If Only Death Was An Illusion, for instance, the closest approximation might be the frantic but precise style of Death Angel (including some wonderful melodic Spanish guitar-backed interludes), whereas the thrash style younger fans will be familiar with through Evile is the primary sound on Monster and Dark Days. Then it’s the turn of the slightly softer side of Annihilator‘s sound on a fantastic Ain’t Giving In (featuring a little nod to Ronnie James Dio with a yell of “Fool fool!”?). Artillery have all of these strings to their bow and more, as one of the oldest European thrash bands around they can do it all because they’re one of the ones who started it all. The versatility of Adamsen, who can growl and wail at both ends of the spectrum as competently as anyone, reminiscent of Mark Osegueda one moment, and Dave Padden the next, plays a major part in this, but although there’s the occasional stereotypical thrash moment, Thrasher for instance, for the most part this is the kind of intelligent thrash Artillery were always known for, with appearances from all of the elements of the best thrash music. There are still a few major players in thrash expected to release new records in 2011, but even with those potential challengers Artillery’s effort should still be in or around the top releases of the year come December and the obligatory end-of-year lists.

Written by Andy Lye
More: 2011, Albums, Quick.Play Reviews, Thrash Metal, Artillery