Artillery: Legions – new album

 

It’s nice to see things falling back to their places, isn’t it? It’s nice to read about ARTILLERY's seventh album ‘Legions’, out now everywhere since November 26th, 2013 on Metal Blade Records. Angry Metal Guy Steel Druhm agrees with my thinking and welcomes ARTILLERY back with words: “Nice to see these guys firing accurately again!” (more here), while Ave Noctum's Gizmo thinks highly of the band's new vocalist's, Michael Bastholm Dahl who replaced Søren Nico Adamsen, capabilities: “… a fantastic voice, without a shadow of a doubt; more range than the most epic of Westerns and the ability to hold a note that would make most power metal vocalists weep into whatever chalice their current album was wittering on about” (more here). Excretakano, who “haunts the shadowy terrain between massive incompetence and total irrelevance”, of MetalSuck's agrees on the matter, even accolades Michael Bastholm Dahl with the term “singer”: “Dahl takes that word and makes it his bitch,” he writes:

“I should probably mention here, for the sake of candor,” [he continues] “that my tastes veer pretty far from clean-throated throwback thrash rock, and all indicators should point to me hating this music pretty hard.  But I don’t.  The songwriting talent on display is formidable, and all the instruments turn potentially routine passages into extra appendages that work always in the band’s favor.” [More here]

The bottom line, ARTILLERY love their album and so does everybody else. Therefore waste no time ordering ‘Legions’ from Metal Blade here or get it from iTunes, Amazon or from wherever you usually get your prized possessions.

 

(Godfathers of technical thrash metal) ARTILLERY was formed in 1982 in the Copenhagen suburb of Taastrup by brothers Michael (guitar) and Morten  Stützer (bass): “Their recorded demos quickly became a hot commodity on the heavy metal tape-trading circuit, then a booming worldwide network,” reminds us AllMusic's Eduardo Rivadavia (more here). After replacing original singer Carsten Lohmann with Flemming Rönsdorf, the band, rounded out by guitarist Jørgen Sandau and drummer Carsten Nielsen, inked a deal with British metal label Neat Records, which issued ARTILLERY's first two albums, 1985's ‘Fear Of Tomorrow’ (“Fans needn’t have worried about [this album], however, for, even though the quintet's somewhat inconsistent songwriting couldn’t keep listeners riveted at all times, their instrumental abilities at such high speeds still sounded quite phenomenal for the mid-'80s, and the distinctively varied style of the singer provided a highlight in itself,” – Eduardo Rivadavia) and 1987's ‘Terror Squad’. Guitarist Jørgen Sandau left the band in 1989 after a lengthy tour sponsored by the Danish government that took them to the far reaches of the Soviet Union, (“Understandably, ARTILLERY went down a storm with the rock-starved Soviet kids, but authorities were less impressed, eventually sending them packing by way of one-way tickets on the Trans-Siberian Railroad,” - Eduardo Rivadavia). Sandau left shortly after and Morten Stützer took over his position, leaving the bass to Peter Thorslund. The band eventually signed with Roadrunner Records to release their third album, 1990's ‘By Inheritance’, only to disband the following year. Following the 1998 release of ARTILLERY's compilation CD entitled ‘Deadly Relics’ by Mighty Music, Stützer brothers decided to attempt a comeback; the band returned in 1999 with Andy Sneap-produced ‘B.A.C.K.’ (Die Hard Music) only to split up again a year later. Following the release of 4-CD box-set ‘Through The Years’ in 2007, Michael Stützer announced that the band was active once again, with Søren Nico Adamsen taking over long-time singer Rönsdorf's vocal duties. Fifth album, Søren Andersen-produced ‘When Death Comes’, was released in 2009 through Metal Mind Productions: “One of the best things about [this album] though, is the powerful production and mixing; every instrument is clear and thunderous, especially the bass. This is a quality disc recommended to any metalhead, not just thrash diehards,” commented Phil Freeman, AllMusic (more here). Once again wrapped in artwork designed by Polish graphic designer Graal, ARTILLERY's sixth studio album, ‘My Blood’, followed in 2011 via Polish label Metal Mind Productions and was depicted as “powerful and anthemic, with plenty of twists and turns that hold listeners' attention without being all about ‘look what we can do’” by Phil Freeman, AllMusic (more here).

ARTILLERY features: Michael Bastholm Dahl – vocals, Michael Stützer – guitar, Morten Stützer – guitar, Peter Thorslund – bass and Josua Madsen – drums