ARTILLERY - When Death Comes
December 11, 2009, 15 years ago
(Metal Mind)
Dutch veterans Artillery announced their rebirth with a cool live DVD last year, but here we have the first new product from their camp in ten years. The title track opener sets the tone for the whole disc, a speedy ditty driven by a vicious riff and a dirty guitar sound that goes straight for the gut. What follows is almost exclusively more up-tempo stormers that'll bring a smile to the faces of the old school thrashers out there. Unapologetically embracing their past, the old coots (the original members must be in their fourties) obviously haven't lost their passion for the extreme. You just gotta love the heads down conviction and energy levels achieved and retained throughout. Too bad then that they decided to enlist a power metal vocalist at the mic. While not a critical error, it detracts from a package that could have been special given the usage of growler instead.
