By Inheritance
| By Inheritance | ||||
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| Studio album by Artillery | ||||
| Released | May 29th, 1990 | |||
| Recorded | Sweet Silence Studios, Copenhagen, Denmark, January - February 1990 | |||
| Genre | Thrash metal | |||
| Length | 47:38 | |||
| Label | Roadrunner, R/C Records, Metal Mind Productions [limited to 2,000 copies] | |||
| Producer | Flemming Rasmussen | |||
| Artillery chronology | ||||
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| Allmusic |
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By Inheritance is the third studio album by the Danish thrash metal band Artillery. It was released in 1990 by Roadrunner Records. It was Artillery's last album before they disbanded in 1991 and the release of their next album, B.A.C.K., in 1999.
"7:00 from Tashkent" is an instrumental introduction, employing a sitar and an Arabic style of melody. "7:00" most likely means 7 AM or 07:00 in military time, which is logical considering "Khomaniac"'s subsequent lyrical content. Tashkent is the capital and largest city of Uzbekistan, which was not a sovereign state at the time of the album's release. "Khomaniac" continues the prelude set in "7:00 from Tashkent" and utilizes the same angle of melody. It's the longest song on the album (6:42 by itself, 7:36 when combined with the intro) and remains a staple at Artillery concerts. The title "Khomaniac" is a play-on-words reference to Iranian supreme leader Ruhollah Khomeini, merging his last name with the word "maniac". The lyrics refer to Khomeini's dictatorship from 1979 to 1989 and the nearly 8 year Iran-Iraq War. Artillery released a demo of the song without the intro in late 1989 along with the song "Don't Believe", and the cover depicts a crude drawing of Khomeini.
"Beneath the Clay (R.I.P.)" explores criminal behavior. The lyrics are from the perspective of the affected, law-abiding members of the criminal's society. The criminal himself may be a serial killer or some other description that implies a career of crime. It's unclear as to who has died or if the death in question is figurative of the criminal's freedom.
The album's title track concerns natural ability. The lyrics distinguish the subject from the whole of society as one with a great and coveted gift that can only be inherited genetically.
"Bombfood" places the listener into the mind of a low-ranking soldier. The lyrics depict his volunteer process and subsequent deployment, after which he regrets his decision to join the military. The man's idolization for soldiers purportedly blinds him from understanding their lifestyle, and his realization does not come quickly enough to save him from death. The song marks a decrease in tempo in the album that is continued on "Don't Believe", but the faster tempo is restored at certain points in this song.
First appearing on Artillery's 1984 Shellshock demo as "Blessed Are the Strong", this song was heavily re-written and recorded again for their 1989 Khomaniac demo as "Don't Believe". The 1989 demo version is very similar to the final studio version that appears on By Inheritance. The lyrics are far more abstract than the rest of the songs on the album. What is clear is that the subject is a naive human who is taught to hold skepticism and seek rational reasoning in what he truly believes. The lyrics are from the perspective of the teacher, who seems to be supernatural. The song's tempo is similar to that of "Bombfood", but is relatively more consistent.
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