Artillery
Terror Squad

And what if I went to Denmark for the summer holidays?

Yes, right to the land of the Little Mermaid, a place you wouldn't expect, serene and intense in its mix of ancient and modern. In the homeland of Hamlet, with red and white striped lighthouses, with heather pushing onto the beaches, topless girls advising you to slow down, its islands, money with holes, bike paths, the green desert of Rabjerg Mile and the fairyland of H.C. Andersen. I could find myself in the presence of blasphemous characters who bask in tweeting falsetto with upside-down crosses around their necks or scantily clad and enhanced ladies humming ''I'm a Barbie girl, in a Barbie world...''; but I could also bump into five shady figures who, on the verge of 50, still haven't tired of infecting our tedious days with Thrash: Artillery.

The Danish band, after years of ups and downs (the breakup, the reunion which then led to B.A.C.K. in 1999), is experiencing a sort of second youth in the current Thrash scene (and this is starting to delight me quite a bit), strong with the valid return ''When Death Comes'' two years ago and the fresh and even more fascinating ''My Blood''. However, beyond any newfound fervor towards them, I believe it is more congenial and libidinous to focus my remaining neurons elsewhere, dusting off the little gem known as ''Terror Squad''.

The time jump to make is significant: early 1987. Just over a year after their debut and following a ground-shaking tour alongside giants like Slayer and Destruction, the technical and compositional progress matured by Artillery appears tangible and exponential. They further develop their style (already hinted at here and there in ''Fear Of Tomorrow'') characterized by extremely technical and dynamic thrash riffs filled with exquisite tempo changes and articulate structures, but most notably by Flemming Ronsdorf's spectacular voice. The evolution also fully extends to the lyrics that abandon the canonical themes of the most violent metal to move towards committed and strongly critical content: if ''In The Trash'' speaks of the miserable condition in which a large part of the western population is forced to live, ''At The War With Science'' (as inferred from the title) is a heavy naturalistic invective against the advances in science that have led to nuclear development, experiments in genetics and chemical weapons, while it is with the concluding ''Decapitation of Deviants'' that we reach the perfect description of the servile existence to which today's society obliges us (''...the system of strings are breaking your wings, ignorance will build you a throne...'').

What remains indelible over time and in the mind of those who know this album is the freshness and character of the tracks that make it up; eight fiery arrows, each containing at least a dozen different riffs, some memorable others ''only'' devastating, that hit the target straight away; all supported by suitable production that makes episodes such as ''Hunger And Greed'', with its winning chorus, the Slayer-like ''Let There Be Sin'' or the memorable initial trilogy ''The Challenge/In The Trash/Terror Squad'' stand out distinctly with the title track, absolutely among the best works my ears have ever heard in Thrash.

''Terror Squad'' is one of those works that, hand in hand with its masterful and even more refined successor ''By Inheritance'', should have entered the annals of the genre, for a band that in those years, in Europe, was among the first to impart certain stylistic coordinates, yet had a different fate compared to their overseas peers. In this context, the obtuseness and inexplicable lack of support from their label appear absurd, despite the decent critical and public success of the first album and the excellent results of this one. The minimal budget provided by those sly foxes at Neat Records forced the Danes to scrape together during recording and mixing, obliging them to design the poor cover themselves (a ''replica'' of guitarist Jorgen Sandau).

In any case, while I decide whether or not to move my butt to Jutland for the next scorching holiday season, I recommend, should you be fans of the most successful Thrash and have not yet banged your head at least once to the notes of ''Terror Squad,'' to rectify that oversight as soon as possible.

Because besides the melody, the technique, the feeling, and an amazing voice, what more could one ask for?