Twisted Reality

A Danish/Bulgarian collaboration this one, a prophetic one as well, which tries to twist reality by smacking a handsome tribute to the Bay-Area with echoes of Forbidden, Testament, Exodus, reverberating in the walls around, trying to stifle the few references to other past practitioners like the Arizona heroes Atrophy, for instance.

The guys don’t exactly try to establish a new world order with the opening number of the same title, but there’s little to complain on this wall tumbler which steam-rolls onward with thick dense pounding riffs, the vocal diversity surrounding this tank-like march not the best in the world, the guy alternating between semi-shouty/semi-clean tirades and rougher deathly antics. The tank division stays around for the similarly-executed title-track, a marginally more energetic proposition, the album entering more complex, near-progressive territories with the stylish creepy “System of Slavery”. However, the band really find their stride with the brisk technical shredders “Condemned to Insanity” and “World Disassembly”, consummate blends of intricate extrapolations and headlong rushing skirmishes, the major blemish here being the somewhat dragging monotonous “Fatal Beliefs” which is still salvaged to an extent by the stylish lead pyrotechnics of Nikolay Atanasov.

Not the fastest album in the world, this slab bets on prevalent composure and more or less abrupt flashes of speedy dexterity, the final result positive enough to ensure the band a place on the front row of both Danish and Bulgarian metal, especially after the sophomore has been woven of the same delectable ingredients, with a bigger emphasis on longer progressive layouts. The thing is that the Bulgarian side of the collaboration is quite busy, with both the veterans Hades and the prog-metal formation Artikon, and with Atanasov’s engagements with Agent Steel this project may as well be pushed to the side-lines… hope not… I mean, who wants to see Artillery proclaimed the forever champions of the thrashy Danes with their more recent average, not particularly striking opuses?