Artist: Armory
Country: Sweden
Label: Dying Victims Productions / Jawbreaker Records
Formats: 7″ EP
Year: 2025
‘Mercurion’, Armory’s last full-length album, dated back to 2022, so it’s no luxury that we get a new sign of life from these Swedish high-quality Speed Metallers in the form of this 7″ EP. ‘Black Star’ includes two exclusive songs (which qualifies this as an EP and not a single) and is meant as some sort of appetizer for what is to come…
Expect nothing all too spectacular in the sense of flamboyant packaging or musical excursions, this is “just” Armory as we have come to know, which is basically no-frills and rather muscular Speed Metal. Speed Metal that heavily leans on the past traditions and the genre’s primal aesthetics. Yet, without sounding too much retro or fitting too firmly into the revivalist movement. Sure, also here there are some comparisons with bands like Enforcer, who made it bigger than I expected when they debuted, but Armory do have their roots quite firmly in both American and German Heavy Metal traditions.
Both songs on this EP, being the title track and ‘Solar Winds’, together accounting for almost nine minutes of new music, show that Armory is still very much on track and didn’t stray away an inch from the direction chosen with their earliest works. In case ‘Black Star’ would be your first encounter with the band, just picture yourself a good blend of Agent Steel and Helstar at the one end and Living Death and Tyrant at the other, and you have practically what is now known as Armory, including the rather rough vocals. That, for me, in particular is making Armory a band to enjoy a bit more than the average band in this specific genre. Vocalist Andersson isn’t maybe your classic and thoroughly talented Heavy Metal singer, but his rougher vocal approach fits the music well and gives it a bit of a German feeling.
So, if ‘Black Star’ was indeed meant to get us ready for a new album, then the band can declare this galactic battle as won. Bring on that new album!
