Denmark and Iceland are probably two of five countries of Scandinavia that never has contributed with something really big to the metal scene. Sweden, Norway and Finland are all supreme when it comes to export music,
In Flames and
Hypocrisy from Sweden,
Mayhem and
Emperor from Norway and
Children Of Bodom and
Nightwish from Finland. I have no idea if Iceland has any metal bands at all but Denmark did have some interesting metal bands that grabbed my musical interests. Denmark do have some leading bands within different genres (within the country) like the death-metal band called
Konkhra, the other well-known band I can recall would be Denmark thrashers
Artillery. Yes,
Artillery is probably not a well-known band if you ask people but if you happen to be a dedicated thrash fan then you should know of them.
Artillery is known because of their well-executed technical thrash-metal, and the odd but yet unique vocals from their singer
Flemming Ronsdorf. The band became famous but it was not because of their first full-length album, it was because of some demos which was later re-released as
Deadly Relics.
Artillery did also disbanded short after they had recorded their melody tinged
By Inheritance, but (luckily) the band reunited once again and they recorded
B.A.C.K, it is probably not one of their most amazing albums but the unique vocals and the compact thrash riffage was still included in the material. The band has been laying low for a while but the band is active today and may release more albums in the future.
Fear Of Tomorrow was their first full-length album, critics has claimed that it was the demos that made
Artillery famous was slightly better than the songs on this record. Personally I don’t this album is a bad album; the only thing that drags this album down would probably be the production, personally I think that this album is somewhat of a light-weight album just because of that. Since I have heard most of the band’s albums I would say that
Terror Squad would be their heavy-weight album and
By Inheritance would be their medium-weight album. Anyway, this album has some strong and serious traits, this album pumps out furious thrash, blistering guitar solos that would easily outclass other guitarists like
Kirk Hammett and
Dave Mustaine ,especially whe it comes to technicality and complexity. The overall guitar work is lightning fast and most of the times deadly accurate, very catchy and heavy riffs are also spread out in the material. The bass is also playing a big part of this album too, here you have some interesting bass fills and the bass also joins the solos in some of the songs, which is quite unusual if you compare this band to many other thrash-metal bands. There are lots of double bass kicking from the drums, thanks to the half bad production you might have some difficulties to hear most ‘’details’’ in the ferocious drum work. Either way, the drums blasts their way through and delivers a varied selection of heavy, fast and catchy drum patterns that would please the ears of a thrash fanatic. But there is one more thing that makes this album and band very special, and then I aiming at the vocals. Have you even heard
Flemming’s vocals before? I bet that most of you never have heard him sing and there is no other vocalist in my knowledge that won’t even come close to
Flemming when it comes to vocal similarities. I have tried to describe his vocals before but my description got a bit confusing, I even admit it myself. The best way I would describe his vocals would be like this: A psychotic evil-worshipping priest, a complete madman in other words, I still thinks that he is a skilled vocalist because of the fact that he can wail (whatever it is called), like
Joey Belladonna and
Bob ‘’Blitz’’ Ellsworth if you know what I mean. Anyhow, you can’t even try to imagine his vocals, you must hear them if you want to know how he sounds like, unique and odd is all I have to say about his vocals.
Even if I have heard their three first albums I still have some split thoughts, there are things from every album that outclasses other things,
Terror Squad is definitely their heaviest which I like very much,
By Inheritance was more melodic but it was yet skilfully performed and I also like melodic tunes, especially if there are melodies in a thrash album. But overall I still think that this is my favourite
Artillery album, here you have a decent variety of songs,
Show Your Hate offers you a good ‘’headbangable’’ moment,
Time Has Come sounds like a mix between
Exodus,
Coroner and
Kreator.
King Their Name Slayer takes on a slower pace with some heavier and groovier riffing,
Out Of The Sky reminds you a bit of early
Nuclear Assault and
Fear Of Tomorrow would be one of the most fastest and most thrash-assaulting songs. There are still a few things that are good and bad about this album. The good news is that if you like guitar solos more than riffs and stuff like that you will definitely be pleased if you get this album. All solos here are basically chaotic and maniac fast, yet they are played with 100% accuracy which makes the solos very catchy at times. Non-stop energy is what this album is all about, every song in this album is very intense and fast, the only exception would be
King Their Name Slayer and of course the calmer moments in some of the songs. The third thing I slightly dislike but still enjoy is
Flemming’s vocals, crazier vocals can’t be found anywhere once you have heard this singer, if there would be something that makes a band or an artist unique then it would be the vocals. Now to the bad news, the production could’ve been better in my opinion but this was released 1985 so I guess the production couldn’t get better than this, unless you had lot of money to spend on better sound quality factors. Another thing that I thought was a bit bad was that the songs got a little bit repetitive; there were not many songs that really stood out in my opinion.
Definitely not a bad thrash album but if the production was a bit better it would even been a great thrash album. The overall sound felt a bit flat, you can still single out every instrument but if you want a better sound you might have to use a lot of volume of different types of EQ before you get a sound that suits you. I can only find the production as the biggest negative thing about this album; the rest is pretty much flawless. The band plays with incredible accuracy, precision and skill, I would still say that this album would not suit every person who likes/loves metal music. The only thing that you have to get used to would be the crazy vocals, and if you are not into lightning fast thrash-metal then you might have some difficulties to get into this band, unless you check out
By Inheritance. If you like bands like
Exodus,
Coroner,
Nuclear Assault,
Kreator or
Megadeth you would probably enjoy
Artillery and their music.
Band Members
Flemming Ronsdorf – vocals
Michael Stytzer – lead guitars
Jorgen Sandau – rhythm guitars
Morten Stytzer – bass
Carston Nielson – drums
Pros
+ Very technical and energetic thrash-metal
+ Definitely the most unique vocals in the thrash-metal genre
+ Incredible and skilfully performed guitar solos
+ The bass also gets opportunities to show off
Cons
- A clear case of love-or-hate vocals, I like them though
- The production lets the album down
- Perhaps a bit repetitive material but not much though
Recommended Tracks
-- Show Your Hate
-- Time Has Come
-- The Eternal War
-- Out Of The Sky
An excellent thrash-metal album except from the slightly bad sound quality, final rating will be a doubtful 4/5
