Artillery - My Blood review
| Band: | Artillery |
| Album: | My Blood |
| Style: | Thrash metal |
| Release date: | March 09, 2011 |
| A review by: | BitterCOld |
01. Mi Sangre (The Blood Song)
02. Monster
03. Dark Days
04. Death Is An Illusion
05. Ain't Giving In
06. Prelude To Madness
07. Thrasher
08. Warrior Blood
09. Concealed In The Dark
10. End Of Eternity
11. The Great
12. The Almighty [2011 version][Japanese bonus]
13. Show Your Hate [2011 version][digipak bonus]
14. Eternal War [2011 version][digipak bonus]
Artillery is one of those classic second/third-tier 80's thrash bands that took the better part of nearly two decades off ('99's B.A.C.K. is their only release between 1990 and 2009), before re-launching with the thrash-revival movement and pumping out some albums.
My Blood kicks off on all cylinders, with "Mi Sangre" (The Blood Song) , a blazing track with a middle-Eastern sound in the vein of the By Inheritance openers "7:00 From Tashkent/Khomaniac". The momentum carries forward the next couple songs, "Monster" and "Dark Days". It's a rapid-fire thrash assault, excellent production, driving beat, and lots of blazing solos.
By the time they hit the 5th track, they are starting to follow the trajectory that Heathen did with their latest. "Ain't Giving In" just felt cheesy. The song was decent, the ballady bits lost some of the momentum of the opening tracks and the lyrics just had me rolling my eyes. It sounded a bit like someone tried to work some of Charlie Sheen's more lucid ranting into a thrash anthem.
"I ain't giving in/to all your goddamn rules/I'm gonna (duh) win/ I don't listen to fools"
Swell, seeing as they don't listen to fools, I'm sure they won't lose sleep over the rest of the review.
The remainder of the album just doesn't quite hold up to the blazing tracks that opened it. The music is still pretty good, fast, with lots of solos just begging for metalheads to air guitar along with. They just don't seem to be quite as strong as Side 1.
And the lyrics seems to wander too close to Manowar territory? or for old school wrestling fans, like one of Ultimate Warrior's tangents. Climbing mountains alone and fighting like lions, side-by-side before crawling into Satan's armpit (no shit) in an effort to end the world.
I guess lyrics don't really matter for the most part. I generally don't look to metal bands for deep philosophy or anything, but when the vocalist sings as cleanly and clearly as Søren does, one but cannot help but consider them as part of the overall package. At least when black metal frontmen named after obscure Tolkien characters shriek about burrowing into Satan's armpit to exact vengeance for grade school slights, I'm at least oblivious to all but the basic spite of the message.
So all in all it's a fast-paced ripping affair that rages along at double time with technical riffs and fun solos. I enjoyed it well enough, but not quite as much as I did the 2010 releases by other 80's Thrash stalwarts Exodus, Heathen, or even their own 2009 release, When Death Comes.
Rating breakdown
| Performance: | 9 |
| Songwriting: | 7 |
| Originality: | 7 |
| Production: | 8 |
 | Written on 05.04.2011 by BitterCOld has been officially reviewing albums for MetalStorm since 2009. |
Comments
Comments: 14
Visited by: 363 users
| Marcel Hubregtse Grumpy Old Fuck Elite Posts: 40071  |
"crawling into Satan's armpit"? How sweet. So they curl up put thumb in mouth and fall asleep in satan's armpit like a todler.
---- 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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| Troy Killjoy perfunctionist Staff Posts: 21306  |
I found this to be a very hit-and-miss album. The catchy riffs really caught my attention, but the vocals were off-putting and sometimes the harmonies went a little overboard. This is of course coming from someone who didn't really enjoy When Death Comes either. By Inheritance is still one of my favorite thrash metal albums of all time though.
---- "Wise men talk because they have something to say; fools because they have to say something."
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| Chainer Witch Hunter Gen Posts: 172  |
Hey whats wrong with climbing mountains/fighting like lions? Personally I enjoy Satan's armpit. Its pretty cozy and it doesn't smell half as bad as you would think. Otherwise solid review, o and congrats on finishing your dissertation Dr. COld
---- Written by Dangerboner on 02.11.2009 at 08:11
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| Music4TheSpirit MetalForTheSpiri Elite Posts: 4934  |
This cover artwork remembers me somehow of Dance of death cover
---- In this days we seem to be limited by scientific knowledge "I'm a good man... while that don't interfere with my interest" Anonymous , taken from the low moderm and post-moderm consciences
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| K✞ulu Seeker of Truth Posts: 2573  |
"I am gonna (duh) win"  I'd say the description is quite accurate overall. Good job.
---- Savor what you feel and what you see Things that may not seem important now But may be tomorrow R.I.P. Chuck Schuldiner Satan was a Backstreet Boy
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| BitterCOld The Ancient One Admin Posts: 15287  |
Written by K✞ulu on 06.04.2011 at 10:49 Thanks. incidentally, i have a lot of reviews on queue for now... like another 8 more or something. (first label assigned to me has shown me nothing but love and disks in the last 30 days) some point after that I might do a counter-review to yours for Dark Angel. haha.
---- get the fuck off my lawn. Beer Bug Virus Spotify Playlist crafted by Nikarg and I. Feel free to tune in and add some pertinent metal tunes!
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| K✞ulu Seeker of Truth Posts: 2573 |
Written by BitterCOld on 06.04.2011 at 11:02 Oh no. That review suxx. I didn't know what I was writing.  One could say that those were my tastes at the time. Now I appreciate that album more but still my rating wouldn't be much higher than the original one although the review would be different.As far as My Blood, as I state in the album thread, it is more of the same thing, seriously. I am tired of "oriental" tunes. They are now ripping themselves off? Gosh... I was listening the other day to a band called Essence (their latest album), and their intro riff sounded like "7:00 From Tashkent." And they are from DENMARK... F****ck... And Heathen did basically the same thing on The Evolution of Chaos. And none of those attempts sound as cool as "7:00 From Tashkent" because that riff sounds almost genuinely oriental and then is changed by some other cool structure. It is no longer original to do that (but only because it doesn't sounds too much the same). Mind that I am a huge fan of oriental elements in any sort of music, but not of cliches. I think Melechesh's main man was talking about something like a "Hollywood" version of oriental music. This to me is what all these intros sound like. They kind of make use of the new production possibilities and the sound is fuller and stuff, but still those 2011 versions of old songs to me are pussified, ball-less interpretations if you ask me; no 80's bite, and the magic of those times' recording and production plays a huge role: it seems like it is simply impossible to emulate that sound (or feel) in modern conditions. Besides, a lot of the material is just cheesy just like When Death Comes was.
---- Savor what you feel and what you see Things that may not seem important now But may be tomorrow R.I.P. Chuck Schuldiner Satan was a Backstreet Boy
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| BitterCOld The Ancient One Admin Posts: 15287 |
Written by K✞ulu on 06.04.2011 at 16:03 the production thing is an issue which to my mind plagues both modern thrash and dm music. the new stuff sounds great and powerful, but missing some vital spark that made the 'old stuff' so awesome in the first place.
---- get the fuck off my lawn. Beer Bug Virus Spotify Playlist crafted by Nikarg and I. Feel free to tune in and add some pertinent metal tunes!
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| Balthazine Posts: 58  |
Artillery was the band that got me into metal, and By Inheritance was and forever will be a thrash masterpiece. But When Death Comes and B.A.C.K., after they reunited were pretty disappointing albums. WDC was ok at first and I really liked it, but I grew to dislike it after several listens. This album though, I thought was very good, of course not as good as the famed Terror Squad or By Inheritance, but certainly better then When Death Comes and B.A.C.K. IMO, I give this album a 7.5/10 It's better then their previous two albums for sure, but not as good as By Inheritance. Soren is alright and he does fit the band, but he is no Flemming. And I think the change in vocal styles are one of the turnoffs about their new albums. They're famous for creating some pretty sick riffs though, and still hold to that reputation on every one of their albums, so there's no disappointment there.
---- Sometimes in metal they have called me: The Minneapolis Metal Music Examiner -I write articles on metal in the MN area for Examiner.com The Metal Detector -A history of digging up old forgotten metal bands Thrash Master -Famous for my Walls O' Thrash
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| jimmy Posts: 42 |
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| strade Posts: 677  |
Yeah, nothing offensive, but not really anywhere near the league of their best releases.
---- My lo-fi synth project: http://luciddreamer.bandcamp.com
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| Southern Wind Account deleted |
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| Haiwaan Das Posts: 84  |
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| AndreMarcos Posts: 218  |
Completely agree. The album starts quite strong but looses steam fast ... Still an enjoyable listen.
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