ARTILLERY: "...we don't want to tell people what they should do differently, but more telling them this is our opinion and hope they will come up with their own positive way to solutions..."

The word consistency isn't a cause for ridicule of condemnation in music, especially in Metal. Maintaining one's perspective and vision at times is tougher than to widen the spectrum. The Danish Artillery has been such a band. Along with the release of the band's new album "The Face Of Fear", Steinmetal sat for a small chat with band's co-founder and master riffer, Michael Stutzer, regarding the new album, inspirations, lyrics and consistency.

Cheers Michael, I’m very pleased to have you for this interview for Metal Temple magazine, how have you been?

I have been fine

Almost like clockwork and Artillery is releasing its new album, “The Face Of Fear”. A little thought crossed my mind when I first knew about the album’s title, is there any connection, or maybe a theme link, to your debut’s title “Fear Of Tomorrow”?

Yes, it's still the same things we Fear and we thought it was cool to take the Fear (Lyrics) and give them a kind of a update on our new album, also the Face of Fear title was perfect for the cover.

If there is something that I like about Artillery is its consistency in its technical form of melodic Thrash Metal, especially if I judge from the last five albums, and “The Face Of Fear” is one of them. Even though the market around you is in constant shift, what makes you keep Artillery’s signature going? What still inspires you as a songwriter?

Thanks, first of all I really love to play and listen to this kind of Metal and it means a lot to me to play what I like. I couldn’t play Death Metal or pop music or something Like that. In Artillery we always are inspired on what’s going on in the World and on the musical front I'm inspired by a lot of the old bands like Black Sabbath, Rainbow and Uriah Heep to newer bands like Exodus, Evile and Overkill just to mention a few

Although Artillery has been a consistent band musically, what is there in “The Face Of Fear” that is special to you? What do you think makes it different than its predecessor?

On this album we worked hard on doing the riffs and hook lines more and really catchy, so all the songs had its own kind of feel. We also tried to keep all the songs around 4 minutes long to make the songs easier to remember.

With “Penalty By Perception” being a Danish Metal awards winner two years ago, do you think that “The Face Of Fear” is a good competition?

Yeah, I really hope so and if you looking at the reviews and the reaction for the Face of Fear record so far it looks good

What can you tell about “The Face Of Fear” in its lyrical concept? Is there a positive future to the problematic issues that you are raising time after time?

It's hard to say because we don't want to tell people what they should do differently, but more telling them this is our opinion and hope they will come up with their own positive way to solutions

Which of the album’s tracks can’t leave your play button or guitar? What makes this track standout in comparison to the rest of the tracklist?

Oh that's tough because I really like the songs on this album and it changes all the time which one I Think it's my favorite. At the moment it's the title track, Crossroads to Conspiracy and Pain. I really have the same feel about this album that I haven’t had since the By Inheritance album that I want to play all the songs live

I noticed that you re-recorded two old songs and included them in the album, “Doctor Evil”, off the “Legions” album (2013) and “Mind Of No Return”, an earlier demo tracing back to 1982. Any particular reason why did you choose these tracks to be recorded?

The first plan was to rerecord Mind of no return and We are the dead because we wanted to have them recorded with good drums and vocals and really wanted them with our sound of today, but we never had the time to finished the last one. So we had a version of Doctor Evil with some different Vocals and a different mix we used instead.

With the album out in the market, how do you intend to support it this coming year? I guess it will be European tour and festivals? Will there be a Northern / Southern American tour as well?

Yes, we will try to go out and play as much as we can. We already Planning both and European and a Latin America Tour + festivals.

Michael, I wish to thank you for this interview. It is always a pleasure to have you. I enjoyed every minute out of “The Face Of Fear”, the band’s undying spirit lives on and on, album after album, and I am thrilled of your old school perception. Have a good one mate, and good luck.

Thanks a lot Lior, it really means a lot to have the support from you and our fans