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Interview: Artillery

mit Michael Stützer vom 21. Januar 2012 via Mail
Mit den Dänen von Artillery haben wir wieder eines der dieser ganz besonderen Band-Exemplare vor uns, bei denen die Geschichte einerseits genreprägende Züge annahm, der Band-Name andererseits heutzutage fast nur noch Fachleuten und Zeitgenossen ein Begriff ist. Genau genommen wurde ihre Musik bereits als Pure Power Metal bezeichnet, lange bevor es das wuchtige Genre überhaupt gab! Dennoch wird Artillery wohl von Fachkreisen eher selten als Wegbereiter des Genres oder gar als Pionier-Band betrachtet und kaum mit Bands wie Helloween, Blind Guardian oder Stratovarius in einer Reihe genannt. Das mag womöglich an der Entwicklungsgeschichte der Truppe liegen, die geprägt ist von vorübergehenden Auflösungen, Line-Up-Wechseln und stilistischen Unsicherheiten ...
Auf jeden Fall versucht uns Gründungsmitglied und Gitarrist Michael Stützer in diesem Mail-Interview einen Einblick in die komplexe Geschichte von und um Artillery sowie die Wandlung der Band über die letzten drei Jahrzehnte zu geben. Dabei berichtet er uns vom im Jahre 2011 erschienen Album My Blood, erzählt von den Reaktionen der Fans und Presse sowie von den Plänen zum 30-Jährigen Bandjubiläum im Jahre 2012! Die Fans dürfen sich freuen, dass für dieses Jahr außerdem die erste Amerika-Tour von Artillery anstehen soll!
Viel Spaß beim Lesen!
images/2012/1/artillery-2.png

The Interview

Alex: Hi Michael! Thanks for taking the time for this brief interview!
Michael: No problem and thanx for your support!
Alex: How are you doing? What’s up right now?
Michael: I'm doing great and at the moment we are working hard to get our tour to South America working!
Alex: How is the band feeling after 30 years in business? Anything planned for your jubilee?
Michael: We still feel great and having a great time being very greatfull for the still groving support from the Headbangers! At the moment we are having decided yet how we can celebrate 30 years of thrassing, but i'm sure we will do something!
Alex: How has been the last year for Artillery? Any memorable moments?
Michael: We have released our second album after our reunion and that was a promise we made for our supporters, so thats was really important for us to do. On the live front we played Copenhell (the biggest metal festival in Denmark)! We had a great tour to Poland, and we played the great German Festival "Way of Darkness" in Lichtenfels and a lot of other great shows everywhere!
So we had another great year!
Alex: Last year, you released your latest album „My Blood“. What can you tell us about it?
Michael: The production has been very similar to WDC, but i think it has improved a bit compared to WDC!
Alex: How has been the fan’s feedback?
Michael: I think overall it has been great, you know you can never please everybody, so with that in mind we are very pleased of how things have turned out!
Alex: Did you maybe hear any critics you plan to take care of for the next album? If so, what are those?
Michael: There will always be someone who think the vocals should be different or the songs have to much "power metal touches", etc. But like I said you can't change things to pleased everybody, of course you listen to what the fans mean. But you have to follow your heart anyway!
Alex: How about the stylistic changes between this album and its predecessor „When Death Comes“?
Michael: I really don't think there is so much changing from WDC, but maybe we was a bit more influenced by our By Inheritance album this time?
Alex: What can you tell us about the upcoming record? Is it already in process?
Michael: We really don't have so much new songs or riffs at the moment and My Blood is still very new so we still have lots of time to write new songs!
Alex: How would you roughly describe the band’s stylistic development and history?
Michael: Fear Of Tomorrow was our Debut and was a great learning process for us It was a combination of the stylistic Metal meets early thrash wereas the proceedeer Terror Squad was simply thrash. Then with By Inherritance came a our at that point most technical album combinated both thrash and metal elements in it with a lot of Middle eastern touches.
With B.A.c.k which was produces by Andy Sneap was what i call our most modern attemt to the Artillery style, but still with the base in thrash metal. When death comes was ofcourse a little change in style because of the changing in the vocal style, but still with the roots of thrash. My blood i think is a combination of all our albums, especcially with a lot of hints form both WDC and BI. Still i think Artillery always have tried to be true to our roots.
Alex: What did you feel when founding Artillery? How much experience did you have in the field of Heavy Metal music at that very time?
Michael: Morten and I had listen to a lot of heavy and metal at that time and Carsten came from listen to Metal and punk, and that combination led to Artillerys Sound. If you took bands like Black Sabbath, Deep Purple, Accept, Iron Maiden, G.B.H and Mercyful Fate, NWOBH (like Tank) etc you have the first bands who influenced our style, later on it was Metallica, Exodus, Savatage etc.
Alex: Are some of your band members currently working in or on side-projects or do they have other jobs they follow besides Artillery?
Michael: We all have regular day time jobs. You can't live by making thrash metal as a band at our scale. Søren has helped some other bands doing the vocals for Serpent Saints etc.
Alex: Just after the first album that followed your reunion, silence fell around Artillery from 1999 to 2007. What happened?
Michael: Flemming our old singer lost his commitment for the band and did not wish to tour etc. So after trying to get on the road for a long time we decided to get a new singer!
Alex: Are there any (special) gigs or is there something like a bigger tour planned for 2012?
Michael: We will be playing in USA for the first time ever and are currently working on our first tour ever in South America. Also we will play Belgium, Spain, Portugal, Germany and of course a mini tour in Denmark. And I know our booker is working on a lot of other things at the momemt, so we have to see what is going to happen!
Alex: What do you expect from these shows?
Michael: A lot of great time, it's always a pleasure to play live from the best metal audience in the world. You know the thrasher are the best headbangers!
Alex: What’s up next for Artillery? What else can the fans expect from you in the near future?
Michael: Hopefully a lot of concerts, a new album, maybe a DVD from the Rock Hard Festival!
Alex: Anything else you would like to tell your fans?
Michael: Without you it would be impossible to run a band like Artillery, so a big thanx to you! CHEERS!
Alex: Thanks again for your time, Michael! All the best for the future!
Thanx for the support and take care!
Michael
Moderation: Alexander Kipke

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