Artillery – X
Release Date: 7th May 2021
Label: Metal Blade Records
Pre-Order
Genre: Thrash
FFO: Accept, Testament, Megadeth.
Review By: Kenny Newall
Inspired no doubt by the legendary metal great, Kylie, Denmark’s Artillery have named their tenth album X. Sadly missing founder member Morten Stützer who died in 2019, Artillery have soldiered on and released one of their best albums in recent years helped in part by the strong production supplied by Søren Andersen.
Now the most important thing to know is that singer, Michael Bastholm Dahl has the same jacket as me. As seen on album highlight, Turn Up The Rage (video below). He’s a better singer than I am right enough and TUTR showcases Artillery’s use of melody and riffage to give those of us who can’t quite handle power metal’s histrionics and pretensions something to sing badly along to in the shower.
The rest of the album should be more of the same one would think, but The Ghost Of Me starts off with a Scorpions style ballad, yet thankfully kicks in with an absolute belter of a chorus. Sadly it wanders it’s way back to the limp side on the verse, but it does break the album up and the chorus is the one that I can’t get out of my head. (And coming in at 46 minutes, you could chop the verses off and get the album on one side of an old school C90).
Definitely thrash, there’s also hints of the likes of Symphony X, Helloween and good old fashioned heavy metal keeping the Danish thrashers firmly at the melodic edge of the genre where they’ve consistently delivered. Overall a worthy addition to Artillery’s canon.
(3.5 / 5)
