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Artillery - Legions review



Reviewer:
8.9

99 users:
7.42
Band: Artillery
Album: Legions
Style: Thrash metal
Release date: November 22, 2013
A review by: ScreamingSteelUS


01. Chill My Bones (Burn My Flesh)
02. God Feather
03. Legions
04. Wardrum Heartbeat
05. Global Flatline
06. Dies Irae
07. Anno Requiem
08. Enslaved To The Nether
09. Doctor Evil
10. Ethos Of Wrath

My impression of Artillery has always been something like this: "riff-riff-riffety-riff-shred-riff-riffety-riff." I am pleased to note that, while Artillery are no longer attempting to write every badass riff in existence, Legions well upholds the outstanding image I gleaned from Terror Squad years ago. These veteran thrashers have returned triumphantly once more, rejuvenated and ready to wreak havoc.

In typical Artillery fashion, Legions begins with a ripping scorcher of Middle Eastern character; right off the bat, "Chill My Bones (Burn My Flesh)" sets the bar high with its sick licks and eerie Candlemass-like chorus. The pace pushes on at a pleasant full tilt until "Global Flatline," a moderately-paced affair with a thrash mid-section that proves to be one of the highlights. While it's not quite as riff-laden as previous releases, you cannot get away with making an Artillery album that does not have a myriad of interesting guitar parts; "Doctor Evil," in my opinion, contains some of the best examples on this album, and is also one of the overall best tracks.

Despite the loss of founding drummer Carsten Nielsen and singer Søren "Nico" Adamsen after 2011's My Blood, Artillery have not faltered in their creativity and energy. In fact, the new lineup sounds positively peachy - lively, youthful, and full of gusto. New vocalist Michael Bastholm Dahl is a magnificent fit. His vocals are cleaner and more operatic than those of Nico or Flemming Rönsdorf, with some resemblance to Joacim Cans or Ronnie James Dio seeping in here and there. The harmonies add both a whole extra layer of strength to his presence and an interesting dimension to the sound. His voice seems not entirely suited to thrash; Dahl definitely strikes me as more of a traditional heavy metal singer, but he works very well here and has real talent.

Dahl's new vocal approach, the melodic elements of songs like "Enslaved To The Nether" and "Dies Irae," and the occasional appearance of keyboards add a noticeable power metal aspect to Legions. I hear flecks and drams and scintillas of many other bands; the comparison that continuously comes to my mind is HammerFall-meets-Kreator. This might not be the most accurate description, but it does get at the power metallized thrash feeling the album conveys. Artillery have been moving in this direction over the last few albums, but on Legions it seems to meet with the most success.

Legions feels more inspired and is an altogether stronger album than My Blood, which is itself a pretty good album. Some of that violent, old-school thrash aggression can be lost in the new, more streamlined fashion that Artillery has explored over the last couple of releases. This is indubitably a new age and a new sound for Artillery. Legions is, however, a very strong album, and a well-executed embodiment of that sound which makes the evolution more positive.


Rating breakdown
Performance: 10
Songwriting: 9
Originality: 7
Production: 9





Written on 06.12.2013 by I'm the reviewer, and that means my opinion is correct.


Comments

Comments: 10   Visited by: 333 users
06.12.2013 - 16:55
Rating: 6
Troy Killjoy
perfunctionist
Staff
Mindlessly fun macho man metal for the masses. Didn't think I'd see such a high score around these parts, but to each their own. You took a lot more positives from this than I did, that's for sure.
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"Wise men talk because they have something to say; fools because they have to say something."
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06.12.2013 - 19:27
Rating: 10
nina jensen
Great Review!
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06.12.2013 - 19:32
Cynic Metalhead
Ambrish Saxena
Written by Troy Killjoy on 06.12.2013 at 16:55

Mindlessly fun macho man metal for the masses. Didn't think I'd see such a high score around these parts, but to each their own. You took a lot more positives from this than I did, that's for sure.

Generally, Screaming rates higher in his reviews and its justifiable. But, I'm still baffled to see that much high score. I heard couple of tracks and find it good enough but not outstanding. I still need to listen an album again to see what Screaming covered up.
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06.12.2013 - 22:16
Rating: 8
ScreamingSteelUS
Editor-in-Chief
Admin
Written by nina jensen on 06.12.2013 at 19:27

Great Review!

Thanks!
----
"Earth is small and I hate it" - Lum Invader

I'm the Agent of Steel.
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06.12.2013 - 22:18
Rating: 8
ScreamingSteelUS
Editor-in-Chief
Admin
In real life, I do get criticized for liking too many things too much, and I'll admit that I write a lot of positive reviews. What can I say - we have a pretty great scene here.
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"Earth is small and I hate it" - Lum Invader

I'm the Agent of Steel.
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07.12.2013 - 23:41
Rating: 9
JÄY
Metal slave
I give it the same score.
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09.12.2013 - 02:01
Marcel Hubregtse
Grumpy Old Fuck
Elite
What is it with people on this site? It seems as if this is the onyl site in the world where By Inheritance is overrated that much. It's a decent thrash album but nothing spectacular or great,
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Member of the true crusade against European Flower Metal

Yesterday is dead and gone, tomorrow is out of sight
Dawn Crosby (r.i.p.)
05.04.1963 - 15.12.1996

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12.12.2013 - 12:53
hidden_ninja
It is a great album - superb vocals, music and riffs - but the texts are terrible.. and so are the music video.
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12.12.2013 - 20:53
Rating: 9
bblitz
Godlike album.Lars Ulrich should check his countrymen and look up into theirs music
not to make hoolywood movies and play in freakin' Anntarctica.He is only interested
in money.Money not thrash metal
Of course,great review,bands like this deserve more.
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17.12.2013 - 11:45
Rating: 10
Mads
Great Surprise, definately a strong record!
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