Artillery is back in the game.
Following a lineup shake-up, Michael Stützer (lead guitar, ex-Missing Link) and Peter Thorslund (bass) have recruited Frederik Kjelstrup Hansen (drums), René Loua (guitar, Furious Trauma) and Martin Steene (vocals, Iron Fire, ex-Evil, ex-Saturnus) and release their new EP, Made in Hell, with the support of their label Mighty Music.
We kick things off with this new EP’s title track Made In Hell which begins with a rather mysterious melody, eventually igniting the powder keg of distortion that transforms it into an ethereal rhythm, but the arrival of the vocals injects additional energy, offering a more jagged approach. Blending thrash and heavy metal roots, the track is naturally unifying, letting lead guitar take the lead for a cutting solo, then we return to pure efficiency to move into Ghost in the Machine, a track that’s also quite unsettling at first, but then unleashes its distortion to become even more head-spinning. The vocalist lets loose a bit more on this track, but we also notice more melodic harmonics before the band heads back to the past via the furious Into the Universe, a track that appeared on their first album (as well as on their fourth demo), which has been updated while retaining its old-school aggression, whether in the rhythm section, the leads, or the vocal flourishes. The EP closes with The Almighty’s live version (which appears on the same album as the previous track), recorded in 2024, proving that the lineup is solid and has what it takes to bring crowds together with its music.
Fate hasn’t been very kind to Artillery, but the band has managed to bounce back, and they prove it today with Made in Hell, a fairly short EP that shows the band still has the same raw energy as ever.
75/100