| Written by Alex Stojanovic TRACK LISTING The Face Of Fear Crossroads To Conspiracy New Rage Sworn Utopia Through The Ages Of Atrocity Thirst For The Worst Pain Under Water (Instrumental) Preaching To The Converted Mind Of No Return (Re-Recording) Doctor Evil (Re-Recording) Release Date: November 16, 2018 Label: Metal Blade Records Website: www.artillery.dk www.facebook.com/ARTILLERY.DK |  |
ARTILLERY IS:
Michael Bastholm Dahl - Vocals / Michael Stutzer - Guitars / Morten Stutzer - Guitars / Peter Thorslund - Bass
Josua Madsen - Drums
Michael Bastholm Dahl - Vocals / Michael Stutzer - Guitars / Morten Stutzer - Guitars / Peter Thorslund - Bass
Josua Madsen - Drums
Danish thrash legends Artillery, one of the most criminally underrated bands not just in thrash, but metal as a whole. The band's last four albums since reforming for the third time in 2009 (When Death Comes, My Blood, Legions and Penalty By Perception), are among the band's finest that contain the quality of the first three albums. The four aforementioned albums were produced by Soren Anderson, and all contain the exact same tone in production, and the band's upcoming ninth studio album The Face Of Fear continues in that trajectory. If you like the last four albums, there's really nothing on here that should surprise you because you know what you're getting, and that is energetic, riff-oriented, well-structured, heavy and melodic thrash.
Despite the periods of inactivity in the band's history, the fact that they continue to bring fresh quality material that people enjoy is something to be highly appreciated. When it comes to the flow, the band always take great pride in providing dynamics, rather than too much of one or the other. You have the thrashers like "The Face Of Fear", "Crossroads To Conspiracy", "Sworn Utopia" and "Preaching To The Converted", as well as the mid-paced, but equally heavy groove-oriented tunes like "Thirst For The Worst", "New Rage" and "Pain". The latter is the most melodic track on the record, but I wouldn't call it a ballad, as the chorus is a heavy moment. I love the harmonized solo section in this song.
In addition to the nine freshly written tracks, the band also dips into their past with some re-recordings of old songs, which appear as bonus tracks on this album. One song is "Doctor Evil" from the Legions album in 2013. I was rather curious as to how this would turn out because when it comes to re-recording old songs, it's usually to hear the song with better production. However, given that The Face Of Fear and Legions are only five years apart from each other, and produced by the same producer, it certainly got me scratching my head a bit, wondering why they chose to re-record a song from five years ago with the same production quality and tone. There's really no difference to be found between the two versions.
The other song that's re-recorded is "Mind Of No Return", which is a song from the band's We Are The Dead demo, from all the way back in 1982. Now, that's a song worth re-recording because as we all know, the production quality of demo tapes from back in the day, especially thrash, tended to be messy, so I think it's cool that the band chose to give an old track from the old days a modern treatment and clean it up with more up-to-date production. If you're a fan since the early days, and you aren't a fan of this re-recording, it's understandable because you're always going to put on the one you grew up with. The way I look at it is that now we have two great versions of the track: the original and the new.
The Face Of Fear is proof that Artillery have plenty of fuel left in the tank after over 35 years, and they still have a lot to offer. Pick up the album and catch Artillery live when you get the chance.
Highs: World class performances and songwriting.
Lows: I thought the re-recording of "Doctor Evil" was unnecessary.
Final Rating: 8/10
Despite the periods of inactivity in the band's history, the fact that they continue to bring fresh quality material that people enjoy is something to be highly appreciated. When it comes to the flow, the band always take great pride in providing dynamics, rather than too much of one or the other. You have the thrashers like "The Face Of Fear", "Crossroads To Conspiracy", "Sworn Utopia" and "Preaching To The Converted", as well as the mid-paced, but equally heavy groove-oriented tunes like "Thirst For The Worst", "New Rage" and "Pain". The latter is the most melodic track on the record, but I wouldn't call it a ballad, as the chorus is a heavy moment. I love the harmonized solo section in this song.
In addition to the nine freshly written tracks, the band also dips into their past with some re-recordings of old songs, which appear as bonus tracks on this album. One song is "Doctor Evil" from the Legions album in 2013. I was rather curious as to how this would turn out because when it comes to re-recording old songs, it's usually to hear the song with better production. However, given that The Face Of Fear and Legions are only five years apart from each other, and produced by the same producer, it certainly got me scratching my head a bit, wondering why they chose to re-record a song from five years ago with the same production quality and tone. There's really no difference to be found between the two versions.
The other song that's re-recorded is "Mind Of No Return", which is a song from the band's We Are The Dead demo, from all the way back in 1982. Now, that's a song worth re-recording because as we all know, the production quality of demo tapes from back in the day, especially thrash, tended to be messy, so I think it's cool that the band chose to give an old track from the old days a modern treatment and clean it up with more up-to-date production. If you're a fan since the early days, and you aren't a fan of this re-recording, it's understandable because you're always going to put on the one you grew up with. The way I look at it is that now we have two great versions of the track: the original and the new.
The Face Of Fear is proof that Artillery have plenty of fuel left in the tank after over 35 years, and they still have a lot to offer. Pick up the album and catch Artillery live when you get the chance.
Highs: World class performances and songwriting.
Lows: I thought the re-recording of "Doctor Evil" was unnecessary.
Final Rating: 8/10
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