Artillery - Fear Of Tomorrow (1985)

Artist: Artillery

Release Title: Fear Of Tomorrow

Release Type: Full Length Album

Release Year: 1985

Artist Genre: Thrash Metal

Artist Origin: Denmark

Track Listing:
1. Time Has Come 2. The Almighty 3. Show Your Hate 4. King Their Name Is Slayer 5. Out Of The Sky 6. Into The Universe 7. The Eternal War 8. Deeds Of Darkness 9. Fear of Tomorrow
Total playing time 41:29

Although Thrash had been making baby steps in the early 80's, the genre was officially announced in 1985 as a worldwide force with full lengths from Kreator, Destruction, Anthrax, Overkill, Exodus, Slayer and Megadeth hitting store shelves and everybody trying to be faster and crunchier than everybody else. That same year also saw the debut from one of the first bands who helped the thrash sound to evolve in the early 80's. Artillery's "We Are The Dead" demo from 1982 was an awesome seminal piece mixing traditional metal, Sabbath doom and gloom and a frightfully vicious THRASH guitar sound. They definitely influenced people in the underground around them in Europe and elsewhere into branching out into this sound and when they eventually got round to releasing this full length in 1985, they managed to step up the aggression fully into an out and out thrash sound.

The production is a bit scratchy but doesn't spoil the listening experience to any real degree. It merely lends itself to the dark and raw charm of the music. Give me that over the dime a dozen, sterile, wall of noise production that's used on all modern albums nowadays which makes so many bands sound EXACTLY the same....but that's a sob story for another day, I digress...

Standouts on here would definitely be "The Almighty", "The Eternal War" "Time Has Come" and the frantic riffing and tempo changes of "Out Of The Sky" and "Into The Universe". Just wholesome, little doses of classic thrash vitality to turn you into a crippled, dehydrated mess on the floor. The rest is no slouch either and it's all enjoyable. For 1985 this is one of the daddies of the genre and is indespensible. Pick it up if you can.