Artillery is an institution in Danish metal – but virtually unknown except among hardcore metalheads over a certain age. There are a couple of explanations. First, it’s hard to keep a steady fan-base when you release five albums in 25 years… Second, Lady Luck have had a way of shuffling the cards and not dealing the good ones to the Danish thrash veterans.

Artillery was formed in 1982 in Copenhagen and in 1985 the band entered the Sweet Silence studios to record their debut album ‘Fear of Tomorrow’. At the same time another metal band called Metallica were recording in the same studios. The members of the two bands became friends and allegedly Metallica were heavily inspired by the Danes while recording ‘Master of Puppets’.

Then the aforementioned Lady Luck shuffled the cards. Artillery’s ‘Fear of Tomorrow’ was delayed for almost a year, and in the meantime Metallica released ‘Master of Puppets’ which was hailed as an innovative thrash metal masterpiece. When Artillery’s album finally came out it sounded like they were plagiarizing Metallica.

Two more albums followed, the chief work ‘Terror Squad’ in ’87 and ‘By Inheritance’ in ’90. Both albums were great but Artillery never reached an international breakthrough. Then they broke up, years went by, a couple of reunions, changes in lineup and yadda-yadda. Anyway, they’re now back with their fifth studio album in classic lineup except for new singer Søren Adamsen.

Now, as anybody who bought Guns N’ Roses’ ‘Chinese Democracy’ or Queen’s ‘The Cosmos Rocks’ will know, comeback albums from great rock bands is to be handled with precaution, but ‘When Death Comes’ is actually great. Even though you’ve never heard the songs before they take you on a trip down memory lane (in a good way), back to when you were lying in your basement room listening to Metallica, Megadeth, Slayer etc while Iron Maiden’s Eddie The Head were looking on from posters taped to the wall and your mum kept nagging you about getting a haircut and the holes in your jeans.

One of the things that made Artillery great in the 80s was the incredible guitar work of brothers Michael and Morten Stützer and even though their hair is now short and even grayish, the axemen can still write riffs that will blow your socks of. Søren Adamsen handles the vocal impressively and ‘When Death Comes’ is actually every bit as good as Metallica’s ‘Death Magnetic’…

Genre: Heavy metal/Thrash metal
Who: Artillery
Album: When Death Comes
Label: Metal Mind Productions/Target Distribution
Year: 2009
Country: Denmark
Language: English

Recommended tracks:
When Death Comes - 10.000 Devils – Sandbox Philosophy – Damned Religion