Bolt Thrower - Honour - Valour - Pride (2001)

Though a chunk of me immediately wanted to write off Honour - Valour - Pride as a largely forgettable sequel to the mundane Mercenary, there were a few bullet points which raised it a few steps past its predecessor, not the least of which is the fact that this is the sole Bolt Thrower record without Karl Willetts' vocals. In general, though, I found the music here, as predictable and stagnant as it is structurally, to be superior in terms of the enthusiasm of the band, and the brighter production. I definitely took away a sense that the group was still lacking inspiration, that Honour - Valour - Pride offered absolutely nothing new under the sun for this once beloved British band, and that it was simply occupying space to keep the label happy, the fans content, and the band productive...

But, hey, space soldiers, right? I won't lie, when I first saw the artwork I was rather psyched that the band might offer a new spin on their Warhammer 40K phase, and at least in terms of the lyrics, they had returned to the grim futuristic warfare of that setting. Musically, though, it's simply nowhere near as brutal and grim as its spiritual precursor, Realm of Chaos. The production of the guitars and the exorbitant use of engraved melodies against the pummeling rhythm progressions are straight from The IVth Crusade/...for Victory era, which is likely a thrill for the many fans of those eras, but I was crossing my fingers for something else. I do appreciate that they waylaid some of the lame, 90s groove influenced elements from the prior album; while they still exist to a point, this is far more of a 'death metal' experience overall, and thus denser, busier and more intense, even if numerous of the tracks could be interchanged between the two records. A lot of the writhing tremolo rhythms here are subtly more ominous and aggressive than Mercenary, but despite that the songs just really fail to achieve that next level of compulsiveness.

I realize a lot of people weren't too happy that we wound up missing out on a Martin van Drunen-fronted Bolt Thrower, myself among them. In retrospect, we have gotten Hail of Bullets and Drunen's return to Asphyx, which definitely help scratch that itch, but to be honest, I can't imagine his presence over these specific songs would have greatly enhanced their value. As for Dave Ingram, he was a natural choice to fill in for Willett's empty seat, having a comparable, garbled guttural timber and a load of experience on the English death metal scene. Not to mention, Benediction were pursuing a parallel path to this band in how they constructed simplistic death metal with few frills. I have numerous friends and acquaintances that disdain the album for the very reason that they don't enjoy his performance, but he's not at fault for my underwhelmed reaction to the music. A bit more growling sustain than Karl had on Mercenary, and instantly identifiable if you're familiar with records like The Grand Leveller or Subconscious Terror. On the flip side, he doesn't really generate anything more than what you'd expect; Ingram does not elevate himself to fit this opportunity he was given. If you didn't like him before, you wouldn't like him here, and like on Mercenary, the vocal production was very parched and dry, with less depth than the music behind it.

Otherwise, Honour - Valour - Pride sounds pretty damn good, with a better balance of drums and rhythm guitars than its predecessor. The snares, toms and crashes slash straight through the crisp tone of the axes, and you'll get a lot of subtle if striking leads and frilly feedback to create another layer to the experience. The riffs pursue the same balance of death/thrash, grind stretched out to a taffy-like consistency rarely pushing beyond a mid-paced gait; while cuts like "Pride" rely heavily on those same, baleful melodies the band had been spewing forth since War Master. The tone of the bass is also more appreciably corrosive. Granted, as with Mercenary, I find it painful to recall individual tracks, because there's just nothing here as inspired as a "Drowned in Torment", "As the World Burns", ...For Victory" or even a "What Dwells Within". Most of the rhythm progressions are recycled and slightly tweaked so that they're not cases of precise self-plagiarism, and the lack of striking riffs does tend to blend the material together. However an unassuming Bolt Thrower experience this album proved, though, I still found this a more interesting 45 minutes than the previous album. The architecture is comparable, but the songwriting was slightly better arranged. It's an 'okay' disc, the problem is that 'okay' is just not good enough for Bolt Thrower. Thankfully, the next time out they'd remind me just what it was about the band that I so loved in the late 80s.

Verdict: Indifference [6.25/10] (in belligerence and pride)

http://www.boltthrower.com/

Bolt Thrower - Mercenary (1998)

One might presume that, coming after the longest studio hiatus Bolt Thrower had taken since its initiation, the British battalion might have discovered some means by wish to refresh itself, innovate its tried and true, formidable formula. Four years wasn't a whole lot of time, granted, and after the productivity of their 1988-1994 period (5 albums, EPs and live recordings, touring, making a name for themselves), they were well deserved of a pause in the action, but once Mercenary at last arrived, I was rather shocked at just how bland an experience it proved to be. I have long described the record as '...For Victory with most of the life sucked out of it', and that holds up 15 years later, as I still struggle to extract any value whatsoever from this...

What we've got here is a selection of even more simplified-than-usual Bolt Thrower groove riffs, which might have been reorganized from earlier songs, or really belonged to just about any boring mosh oriented groove metal act of the 90s to come along in the wake of a Pantera or Machine Head. Add to these a pitiful few old school death metal tremolo progressions with double bass, and a handful of those majestic melodies that dominated ...For Victory, and phone the whole fucking shebang in. That's Mercenary in a nutshell, the nadir of this band's career, and the first landmark in a decade plus span of mediocrity post ...For Victory that often has me questioning why so many hold the band up as some bastion of consistency. This is quite easily the least amount of effort they've exhibited on any full-length, with a fraction too much repetition of unworthy riffs, a vocal performance that is entirely dry and monotonous, drums that feel far too relaxed against the meatier rhythm guitar tone, and bass lines so disinterested and ineffectual that I very often forget they're even a part of the album. I can count the number of Mercenary's quality guitar progressions on my testicles, pre-orchidectomy.

One of these is in "Behind Enemy Lines", and the other is the central melody to "Power Burns", which is quite understandably a favorite among this track list. Yet even there the damn notes are repeated too often that it struggles to hold up. Elsewhere, the material fails to leave any impression on the conscience. Bolt Thrower were no strangers to incorporating slower, trudging chord and mute patterns into their tunes from as early as the first two records, but their they at least felt crushing, oppressive and visceral. The guitars in tracks like "Return from Chaos", "Laid to Waste" and "Zeroed" basically just sound like beefed up reruns of their older songs, with no memorable note sequences and a predilection towards boring accessibility. Snail paced grind for pub metal mules, and even when they get some half-assed momentum building, the riffs are continuously recycled, and it seems Mercenary is fresh out of ideas. Even the most 'death metal' moments on the album smack of the mid-90s mediocrity of what Six Feet Under and Obituary were releasing.

The lyrics are essentially also retread from themes the band had beaten to death; but while that was probably to be expected, Willetts might have at least delivered them with some punishing panache. It almost feels as if the band woke him up one morning while hungover, too disaffected to care, and had him record his lines regardless. 'Guys, do I have to do this right now? Aww, alright.' Mercenary would have sounded just as lackluster without him. Perhaps the one area in which the album doesn't completely fuck off is Ewan Davies production, if only because he pulls such punch from the limited palette of guitar riffs. Granted, the drums, bass and vocals are nothing at all to write home about, and the album by nature lacks the brightness of its predecessor, but it's certainly forceful when cranked through a decent pair of speakers. Unfortunately, the usual Bolt Thrower brawn here is betrayed by the dull songwriting, and they seem to have transformed temporarily into another casualty of the 90s. It's not the worst album I've heard from a death metal band of this period, but reeks mildly of contractual filler. No wonder Karl took off after this.

Verdict: Indifference [5.25/10] (ask no forgiveness)

http://www.boltthrower.com/

Bolt Thrower - Who Dares Wins (1998)

Who Dares Wins is a thrifty repackaging of two of Bolt Thrower's EP releases: Cenotaph, which corresponded to the War Master album, and Spearhead, released as part of The IVth Crusade campaign. For an added value, there are also two tracks included from Earache's fittingly titled Rareache compilation, which I've never actually seen in a store around my area for whatever reasons, thus living up to its name. Most album collectors in the 80s and 90s probably remember when it was par for the course that bands would produce maxi-singles or EPs with an album cut, a couple unreleased bonuses and some live material or remixes, and both of Bolt Thrower's offerings held to this formula. It was a far better deal to purchase the material in this incarnation, since you were getting an album's length worth, but in retrospect, since most of the rarer material has been included on reissues of the corresponding albums, the carrot has withered off its stick...

The most interesting components of the Cenotaph EP would have included the "Realm of Chaos" live cut, but the quality of the audio is rather terrible. Mostly you can hear the drums crashing along, Karl's guttural vocal emanating out over the space, and then occasional hints of the tremolo guitars, but to dub this a 'clutter' would be doing it too much honor. "Destructive Infinity" is a decent enough cut, but was available with the War Master CD edition, and "Prophet of Hatred", the best part of this particular EP, was already included as a bonus track on the Realm of Chaos CD. In other words, unless you were a cassette or LP whore, having never upgraded to the compact disc, this was all pretty useless. The Spearhead EP features an extended cut of its titular track, which doesn't add a lot of value or replay, and then a pair of tunes that were released on the US CD: "Crown of Life" and "Lament", the former which would have proven only filler if it had come out as part of the core full-length, since it offers little of interest outside of other cuts on that album; the latter rather a crushing bore with vaguely shifting riff progressions, only slightly more memorable. "Dying Creed" was also available on The IVth Crusade, so its inclusion on this EP was unnecessary and redundant.

I suppose if you were a fanatic UK death grinder, both of the original releases were more appealing, but the previously unreleased content felt subpar compared to any of the band's full-lengths to that point. In other words, its original delegation as 'padding' for short-form cash grab releases was appropriate to it. The two cuts from Rareache also come up short, even shorter, in fact. As with a lot of re-recordings of classic tunes, "World Eater '94" falls entirely flat. The riffing tone has been 'upgraded' to the meat of the ...For Victory sessions, with a bit of The IVth Crusade crunch, yet it seems dull and uninterested, where the original recording on Realm of Chaos was so oppressive, bleak and inspired as the wasteland surrounding it. The last track on this collection, "Overlord" definitely sounds like an outtake for the ...For Victory sessions, and its got the same balance of groove and melody, with a mildly exotic note progression. To be fair, it's likely the best unreleased track on Who Dares Wins, but that's not saying much, and after a few seconds of enthusiasm, it too peters out into a bunch of redundant riffing sequences that simply sound like other songs in the Brits' backlog.

Ultimately, while it might have seemed a pretty sweet deal at the time, that Earache would reissue the EPs, which had gone out of circulation, in a friendlier format for the audience's wallets, Who Dares Wins does not hold up as worth owning or even listening to. Unless, of course, you're interested in rehashed studio material, a shoddy live offering, and filler that wasn't good enough for the albums that it was eventually released on anyway...I'd rather listen to Mercenary than this, to be blunt.

Verdict: Fail [4.5/10]

http://www.boltthrower.com/

Bolt Thrower - ... For Victory (1994)

...For Victory's biggest issue was that it had very little to offer beyond what Bolt Thrower had accomplished, so its focus turned towards the production values of the instruments and vocals. Admittedly, they did achieve a sleeker, more accessible sound than records like The IVth Crusade or Realm of Chaos, but I can recall having only a lukewarm reception upon its release. One that has grown slightly more positive down through the years, but if I'm ever seeking my fix of the group's seminal warmetal, this is never the album I'm going to reach for above others. Even the cover image seem a little lackluster by comparison to the prior efforts, their first to veer away from more eye popping artwork; but to be fair, the photo of British soldiers during the Falklands War of the early 80s has some internal meaning to the band, as was mentioned on the "Through the Ages" outro on The IVth Crusade.

As an introduction to the band's style, a 'my first Bolt Thrower record', ...For Victory certainly functions as a gateway to their superior, past works. The melodies here are monumental, threaded with a worldliness far brighter than the oppressive din of a record like Realm of Chaos. The considerable amount of grooving chords cut further into the higher strings, and as a result they feel friendly and fulfilling, perhaps not entirely above a few hints of influence from the eminent trends of the early through mid 90s like grunge and groove metal. It's surely a modernization of The IVth Crusade, but they'd abandoned that grim, gnarled fuzz in the rhythm guitar for something up to the standards of evolving studio production. I've had several acquaintances who consider this the best 'sounding' of the Bolt Thrower catalog, and judging by the criteria they used, I could not wholly disagree. The drums, for one, sound absolutely riveting, in no way dominated by the guitar tone; while Karl Willett's vocals are sauced in more effects than on the earlier albums, which lend them a more professional atmosphere. Jo Bench's bass playing wasn't quite a step beyond what she'd produced in the past, but her tone here pops along more noticeably, most of her lines wholesome even when following the rhythm guitar precisely. Leads, too, are dramatically more melodic and emotional here, some of their best.

In terms of songwriting, I'd say there were three absolute killers among this selection, like "Graven Image" and "Armageddon Bound" with their slightly more complex guitar grooves that very carefully balance the higher, searing melodies with the swaggering muscle of the grooves. "...For Victory" itself is hands down one of my favorite Bolt Thrower songs, with a superb if simple lead sequence and an air of majestic desperation in its sum atmosphere. Once I think past this trio, though, the remainder of the album fits all too snugly into the 'It's Been Done' category, and many of the chord progressions and melodies seem like underwhelming mirrors to those I've already mentioned. ...For Victory is paced well, and consistent enough that you'd rarely need to interrupt a direct 38 minute playthrough, but its most absorbing and unforgettable material could easily be condensed down to an EP worth. Granted, audiophiles might be more inclined to revisit this than the first four albums, because it's certainly the most balanced in instrumentation and the dichotomy of aggression and musicality, but one thing I was really missing here is atmosphere...

...For Victory is similar in lyrical tone to its predecessors, exploring the ramifications of centuries of human conflict in broad, psychological strokes, but this is more suited for the History Channel than the absolute crushing darkness of their old wargaming-inspired concepts. Nothing wrong with that, really, and bands like Hail of Bullets have certainly taken cues from Bolt Thrower's legacy and written some smashing World War themes, but I for one am more privy to the band's more oblique and repulsive material. In other words, I enjoyed the ominous Bolt Thrower considerably more than the glorious Bolt Thrower, even if both poles suit the band's modus operandi. As such, this particular album was never really my favorite, but I'd be lying to ignore its considerable aural qualities. Worth owning, far better than its two successors, and I enjoy it more than the 1991 record War Master, but other than a handful of the tracks, I rarely feel the compulsion to dust it off.

Verdict: Win [8/10] (the battle smoke remains)

http://www.boltthrower.com/

Bolt Thrower - The IVth Crusade (1992)

The IVth Crusade proved a welcome turnaround from the diminishing returns of its predecessor War Master, and brought back a fraction of that oppressive, Realms of Chaos heaviness, but this praise comes with a price, for his album was also pretty much the peak of Bolt Thrower's cycle of artistic development as a band. That is to say, all four of the albums since this one have not really shown any meaningful progression beyond this, apart from minor production details, marginally divergent instrument tones, levels of melody, and precise lyrical subjects. Not that this implies they're all worthless in of themselves; hell, I enjoy Those Once Loyal just as much as The IVth Crusade. But I've never been able to shake the feeling that they've been riding their own, viscera splattered coattails for many years now, reaching that creative summit early on and providing nothing since but a rehash of musical ideas. From a band which recorded one of my favorite works in its genre, I simply expect more, but at least when I first acquired The IVth Crusade, I had high hopes that the band could continue to develop.

Whereas War Master was a fraction too clean, and void of the many impressive tracks required to capitalize on the crushing atmospheres of Realms of Chaos, The IVth Crusade seeks to accumulate some of that filth again, caking its tank treads with a grimier, slightly fuzzier guitar tone that burns an impression into the audience more successfully. They'd once more gone with Colin Richardson as producer, but he's able to extract a bleaker, moodier Bolt Thrower here, and the result is something I was rather expecting from its predecessor. Granted, this album isn't exactly in tip top shape as far as the riffing quality, but its gray faced grooves and economic implementation of melody help to compensate for any dearth of searing progressions. I've long felt that there was more of an old school 'Florida' aesthetic at work here. The stark simplicity of the songwriting was nothing new, but the slower paced chugging patterns would occasionally remind me of Obituary (1988-1992 era) in both tone and structure. The IVth Crusade also paces itself very well, from the sobering and glorious title track opener through a number of relatively distinct classics in the band's discography, like "Spearhead" or the lumbering "As the World Burns". There are definitely a few lulls in the excitement through the 53 minutes, and it might have benefited from about 10 minutes of trim, but little of the material is banal enough that you'll want to turn it right off.

Really dug the balance of guitars and drums here. The latter were probably Andy Whale's most taut and professional performance to their day, with a lot of double kicks that coursed along to those saturated, processed rhythm guitar grooves. It's clear they were aiming at a lot of low end resonance, so the snares and cymbals aren't set as centerpieces to the mix, but despite that the drumming is clear and functional. The bass guitar stands out slightly more for me than on the prior two albums, itself cast in a bit of fuzz, but the guitars distract the ears away from those frequencies with few exceptions, and it still seems a tad too complacent. As for Karl Willetts, he's hardly dispensing syllabic lines that feel innovative or fresh after War Master and Realms of Chaos. I think the issue is that he, too, is really no match for this guitar tone, and since he's no longer using the most ominously morbid of inflections, he's perhaps the least potent force on the album. The use of faint, atmospheric synths is not unwelcome, but they're perhaps too buried in the background, at least the bridge of "Ritual". The idea of using narrative, cleaner vocals in the bonus track "Through the Ages" is an interesting one for Bolt Thrower, but simply reading a chronological tour of historical battles felt cheesy...

I mean: yeah, we get it. War is a paramount, tragic admission of mankind's failures. You'd have be living on another planet with no line of communication to NOT realize this; but it still seems a little hammy for Bolt Thrower, a band whose militaristic themes, both fictional and historical, are a big part of their popularity. But at least the slow, doom-like riff behind it was pretty sweet, and I don't wanna digress too far: despite its few flaws, The IVth Crusade is still far and away one of the Brits' best albums. At worst its just treading the band's familiar conquests with due consistency, but at best its an evocative, grim, hypnotic experience, with a more philosophical and historical lyrical theme that examines more than just the battlefield, but far reaching societal implications of idol worship ("Icon"), dreams of the afterlife ("Celestial Sanctuary"), and the nuclear irresponsibility of progress ("As the World Burns"). All told, a damn solid, quality listen which has held up for two decades. It only rarely engrosses me to the extent that Realms of Chaos did, but its better than just about anything else they've released since, with the one exception I noted above.

Verdict: Win [8.5/10] (repentance is denied)

http://www.boltthrower.com/

Bolt Thrower - War Master (1991)

I've mentioned before how 1991 was a particular year of letdowns, or albums that I've never interpreted as having the level of brilliance that many acclaim. Bolt Thrower's War Master is another example of why this curious curse applied strongly to the death metal realm. Often lauded as one of their best releases, I understand this is an album which holds a high place in many hearts for a number of reasons. It came at a time when Bolt Thrower was finally achieving some popularity overseas, and for a good many of the band's long term fans it was actually the first ever exposure. In fact, death metal as a whole was really beginning to take off, and thus it seems a predictable coincidence that several albums of this time are hailed among the utmost classics of the field: Sepultura's Arise, Morbid Angel's Blessed Are the Sick, Death's Human, all efforts that I found inferior to their predecessors in terms of songwriting quality, but nonetheless have achieved an inarguable immortality. Now, that's not to say I hated any of them, and War Master itself isn't such a bad record, but after the unforeseen crushing I received at the hands of the Bolt Thrower sophomore effort, I felt like the band abandon a lot of that grim, grinding, oppressive atmosphere to create a work more accessible to a broader array of extreme metal aficionados...

Which wouldn't be a bad thing, necessarily, if the composition had the same caliber of hooks, or if the band showed a marked progression in how they structured their music. War Master doesn't quite accomplish either of these things, and for the most part it feels like a Realm of Chaos Part II, only waxed and polished to a shining surface. In my case, completely unneeded. The songs are still rooted in similar grooves to its direct predecessor, and Bolt Thrower hadn't exactly reverted to the faster, more disjointed songwriting of their debut, but I found that at least half the cuts here just didn't stick like a "Drowned in Torment", "Lost Souls Domain" or "World Eater". Aesthetically, I suppose that, at the time, I might also have felt displeased band was starting to lyrically edge away from their Warhammer 40k theme, though some of the lyrics are a direct continuation of the same, pessimistic overtones. But considering that their debut was a more general examination of warfare and nuclear eradication, and the cover art was intended to capture a Warhammer Fantasy feel, the inner nerd-child in me couldn't really cite this as a reason to throw it out to the proverbial Space Wolves. No, my lukewarm reaction to War Master ultimately rests on the fault of several of its songs to penetrate my memory for more than a small stretch of time, and the fact that it's sandwiched by two far better albums, which in unison are responsible for most of my favorite Bolt Thrower tunes.

There are exceptions, of course, like "What Dwells Within" with its hypnotic tremolo picking, "Cenotaph" and "Profane Creation" for those monolithic, melodic grooves, but in general I can pass on most of the tunes here without feeling as if I've missed out on anything. In terms of production, it's quite spiffy. The guitars have a crisper bottom end that still manages to give an impressive of depth and forceful heaviness, but there was this flesh wound fiber to the tone on the last album that isn't matched here. Drums seem to have been tightened up in terms of timekeeping, yet the cymbals, snare and hi hats often feel a tinge too tinny. I know I've read that Jo Bench didn't enjoy the bass tuning on Realm of Chaos, so it makes sense that she's a little more audible on this followup; but at the same time, even if the bass lines are louder, they're not doing much of interest here aside from following along with the rhythm guitar. Willetts' inflection had hardly changed at all, but I still felt like his performance on the sophomore was more bloody, brutal and atmospheric. I do like the leads here, they're vivacious, bright, and cautiously ripping in contrast to the meatier rhythms, but many of the riffs in the verses feel a fraction banal. Natural for the Bolt Thrower canon, but rarely interesting enough that I want to force myself through them repeatedly.

For 1991, the band still provided a pretty fresh alternative to not only their British peers, but also the Dutch, US and Swedish scene. Unfortunately, that tangibly eminent, otherworldly, depressing grandeur of Realm of Chaos had been dialed back, and War Master feels somewhat more dry as a result. It's got some decent riffs, and the handful of songs that I'd qualify for a 'best of 'list, but for myself it stands alongside Honour Valor Pride and Mercenary as one of the Brits' albums I'm least likely to seek out for my fix. The campy, bloody artwork is admittedly iconic, and it made sense that they'd capitalize on the rougher productions of the first two records with something seemingly larger in budget, but in the end the sophomore has aged so much better in its ominous totality, and The IVth Crusade was far juicier and instantly appealing. For me, at least, War Master remains 'the album between'. A placeholder. I get more bang out of this than various other 'bigger named' death bombs that year (including those listed above), but it rarely reduced me to the same pile of slag as its neighbors in their discography.

Verdict: Win [7.25/10] (all that stood in our way)

http://www.boltthrower.com/

Bolt Thrower - The Peel Sessions 1988-1990 (1991)

Though I consider myself fortunate enough to have had local college radio available to me through puberty (WJUL Lowell in particular), and plenty of exposure to the metal and hardcore/punk underground in the mid through late 80s, introducing me to hundreds of bands, there wasn't quite anyone like England's John Peel that I could tune into, at least not to my knowledge. Most of us American fans probably know the name through the 'Peel Sessions' sets he would allot to up and coming artists in various genres, many of which were released as EPs that the rest of us outside the UK would hungrily track down. While Bolt Thrower was still pretty small time when it first appeared on Peel's show in '88, I can just imagine how cool it would have been for these guys (and gal) to show up at my studio and churn out some fucking war metal...really, one of those 'best job in the world' situations that you simply have to envy.

Bolt Thrower had three Peel sessions, each more or less corresponding to promotion for one of their first three albums, and the first transmission was released as an EP through the Strange Fruit imprint in 1988. Undoubtedly a collector's item, the better option was the 1991 re-issue which also featured the later sessions (another in '88, and then the War Master preview in '91). So, basically a 12-track tour of Bolt Thrower's formative, influential material captured for posterity, and for what it's worth, I think it sounds pretty good, better than many of the professional live albums I've heard from extreme metal outfits. The songs in each session don't necessarily correspond with the albums in chronological order, so listening to the material in sequence definitely feels as if you were capturing a gig back in the early 90s. There are a few issues, like the drums feeling extremely loud over various of the sessions, the kicks creating a rumbling tectonic plate that often feels disparate from the rest of the instrument mix, but what I enjoy about the entire experience is how it really captures that grim and oppressive atmosphere of the first two records, even on the later tunes like "War Master".

The grooves sound incredibly evil, Willetts' guttural timbre is smoky and ominous like a massive gunbarrel post-payload, the bass trembling and the guitar tone just about perfect, and though the production of the various albums did differ, the collected sets here all sound quite consistent. You really feel as if you're ducking behind cover in some massive urban warzone, buildings collapsing and tanks crushing the debris while survivors hide in any nook and cranny that will shelter them. There's also a track here from the 2nd, Realm of Chaos Peel session: "Domination", which is exclusive, though bits of it were cannibalized for other material later. Not their best by any means, and gets a little monotonous through the blasted stretch in the center, but an added bonus nonetheless. Otherwise, the track choices are just awesome: "Attack in the Aftermath", "Drowned in Torment", "Eternal War", "Lost Souls Domain", "Imperial Erection"...oh wait, no, the last one was just my reaction as a Warhammer fiction enthusiast.

In other words: a quintessential Bolt Thrower live offering that satisfies just about any desire I'd ever have to purchase such a medium. It's no wonder they haven't strung us along with a bunch of useless live recordings, they've certainly got the popularity, but apparently they've also got too much class, and had already given us the first tasting before releasing a full-length. The only alternative I can think of would be their Earache 'Into the Pit' .mp3 session Live War, but the track I heard off that did not impress me as this did. Unfortunately, I can't imagine this is easy to find anymore. If you were lucky to be collecting tapes or CDs back in the 90s, it wasn't all too difficult (I saw numerous copies at my local import shops), but these days it is probably due for a reissue. Maybe even an iTunes reissue?! Someone get on that.

Verdict: Win [7.5/10]

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Bolt Thrower - In Battle There is No Law! (1988)

It would be almost impossible for me to think of Bolt Thrower's debut without also considering British extremity as a whole, or the process of how metal's evolution was devoured and regurgitated back and forth across the Atlantic Ocean, growing darker and heavier with each wave of new acts to don the genre and render it further inaccessible from its 70s roots. In Battle There is no Law! was one of a trinity of influential English albums to take on the emergent death metal medium, but it had some clear differences from its contemporaries Reek of Putrefaction and Scum! For one, where Carcass and Napalm Death were verily heavily expounding upon a punk and hardcore foundation, Coventry's carnal crusaders were more or less skipping that step and composing riffs that functioned off a thrash base. All three have been associated with the origin of 'grindcore', but rather than get into a tired semantic debate, I'll just state that In Battle... is easily the least imbued with that style's characteristics. The lyrical inspiration was also something else: rather than rallies against a corporate Earth, or medical grotesqueries privately intended to curb carnivores from their diet of flesh, Bolt Thrower, named for a weapon in Games Workshop's popular Warhammer 40K setting, had a fairly unhealthy obsession with, you guessed it, warfare. One that they've never shaken in over 25 years of existence.

Unlike its follow-up, Realm of Chaos, this debut doesn't necessarily delve into the the universe of that war gaming milieu, but focuses more on historical violence and the theoretical aftermath of civilization's plummet post-nuclear armageddon. And this is important, because it helps define what exactly made the band so standout and special to begin with: the atmosphere. In Battle There is No Law! is not the most righteously riffy of creations, granted, but it hits you on numerous visceral levels. For one, the tuning and timbre of the guitars is entirely oppressive and downtrodden, from the base thrash chugging structure to the roiling and fleshy grooves, Bolt Thrower simply did not sound like its US peers and death metal progenitors Death, Obituary, and Autopsy. The Brits were peddling more of a condensed flood of atrocity, and the debut never really lets up across its 30 minute play-length. Rather than creating eerie tremolo lines in their songs, they simply bashed the listener over the head with alternations of tank-tread grooves and accelerated processions of chords that almost seemed like a relentless upgrade to the speed/thrash metal sect (I hear a tint of Sodom or Hellhammer, certainly). Add to that the exertions of shredding solo here, either tapped or just wailing away on random strings of notes, and you get a pretty interesting contrast that only adds to the overall atmosphere, thanks to the unapologetic level of effects applied to the lead tone. Truthfully, there were probably only a half-dozen 'memorable' riffs on the whole of this disc, but this is so fucking heavy that it thrives off its nihilistic production regardless. Not a lot of other shit in 1988 can claim to have been this intense...

Whale's drums here incorporated scads of double-bass rhythms from the get-go, and this is likely the album's most prominent influence on the decades of death and grind since, not to mention the proto-blasting involved in tracks like "Challenge for Power" and "Concession of Pain". I've read comments about how the playing on this and the sophomore were 'sloppy', and perhaps that really is the case, but I think it's only amplified by the sheer volume of his beats, which sound like a few score mortars being fired off in conjunction. Transitions often feel a little random or misplaced through the tracks, but that doesn't do the music a disservice per se, only adds a bit of youthful chaos. Though the bass guitar itself is not the loudest ingredient, In Battle... as a whole definitely leaves a depth charge concussion on the soul and skull, and Jo Bench definitely laid out a proper, voluptuous low end which creeps beneath the meat of the rhythm guitar like carrion crawlers coming out to feast on the mounds of war-dead. Karl's vocals here are actually at their highest pitch through the band's career, one of the biggest dividers between this and the later Bolt Thrower albums. He's not got that same, brute guttural, but more of a bloody, bluntness that he intersperses with growls (closest comparison would be some of Chris Reifert's tormented mania). Certainly more of Karl's accent shines through than you'd expect. In a way, this is one of his more interesting and diversified performances, but I can see why some might have preferred the grimmer, streamline approach he'd take on later.

I have read other opinions of how In Battle There is No Law! is some sort of anomalous work in the band's catalog, and how it's aesthetically disparate from its successors, but I must disagree. Just about every aspect of the record forms a perfectly natural staging for Realm of Chaos, only there the band decided to go for an even bleaker sense of atmosphere, honing in for higher quality, drudging riffs and using the Games Workshop fiction as a direct lyrical source. It's arguably busier than most of the more condensed riff cycles they'd adorn later, but not hugely complex in structure. Overall, though, I'd say this immediately establishes the band's identity, the sophomore simply solidifies it. Unfortunately, Realm of Chaos does such an amazing job of manifesting its otherworldly, oppressive imagery into unforgettable songs, that given a choice, I'll seek that out for my Bolt Thrower fix 10 out of 10 times over this. That's hands down one of my favorite death metal recordings ever, despite In Battle There is No Law! being my first exposure. But I don't wanna sell this short, because it was quite impressive for its day, far more structured and compelling than Scum!, From Enslavement to Oblivion, or Reek of Putrefaction, and the punkish cover art and original 'logo' are both pretty iconic, even despite my preferences for Space Marines. Often more brash than brutal, but a gem all the same, and well worth hunting down if just to experience one of the death metal's formative sounds.

Verdict: Win [8.25/10]

http://www.boltthrower.com/

Bolt Thrower - Those Once Loyal (2005)

Bolt Thrower's 8th studio album was a breath of fresh war arriving at the perfect time, as it had been far too long since the band released anything of importance. That isn't to say Mercenary or Honour Valour Pride were necessarily bad albums, but they lacked the impact of a Realm of Chaos or IVth Crusade (still the band's best work in my opinion). For Those Once Loyal, Karl Willets returns to the vocal artillery and the magic is captured yet again, surpassing their last 'good' album, 1994's For Victory.

A subtle symphonic text preludes the furious "At First Light" before the glorious melodies and brutal groove of the verse arrive to stamp you into the fucking dust. "Entrenched" opens with an almost Slayer like nihilistic thrashing, which grows thicker into the verse and the rallying cry of the breakdown. "The Killchain" once again channels that similar, flowing thrash into a brutal, bouncing hook, and a chorus which is simultaneously evil and majestic. "Granite Wall" channels that same sort of groove which dominated Realm of Chaos, and the title track is a slower, somber wartime masterpiece which drags you back into the desolate conflicts of our sorry humanity. "Anti-Tank (Dead Armour)" catches you with Jo Bench's distorted bass blitz and then layers on the hooks. The album saves some of its best tracks for the later hours: the subtle and infectious "Salvo" and the winding battery of instrumental "When Cannons Fade". The bonus track "A Symbol of Eight" is also decent. The lyrics throughout retain their battlefield savvy:

Stranded in no mans land
Water always tastes the same
Trapped within this shell hole
There is no shelter from the steel rain
Dead men again

The record is a crusher in terms of its sonic breadth. It retains the band's old school, subtle ability to 'entrench' its listener into the horroscapes of hopeless warfare through its shifting morass of endless, brutal grooving. Yet the band continues along its path of delivering an edge of transcending melody and majesty above the bloodshed (a trend which began some time ago on The IVth Crusade). Truly this is a band in fine form if they can still issue a statement like Those Once Loyal. But until they do so again, at least...we have Hail of Bullets?!

Verdict: Win [8.5/10] (casualties are stacked)

http://www.boltthrower.com/

Bolt Thrower - Realm of Chaos: Slaves to Darkness (1989)

You stand alone
The final parody
As you realise - your mortality
For you cannot change your destiny
To die at the hands - of the unknown enemy
Your death - you can't deter
As the silence - returns
World-eater

By the time 1989 rolled around, the world had already had its first few delicious tastes of the death metal. Chugging away in their English basements, war-gaming fanatics Bolt Thrower were slowly mutating the filthy, thrashing death hybrid of In Battle There is No Law into something more simple yet far more punishing. Slow-paced, down-tuned brutality, yet with occasionally forays into faster tempos and desolate grooves. Stir in the wargaming influence of the Warhammer 40K universe from Games Workshop, and you've got what is perhaps the first 'conceptual' masterpiece of the death metal genre, an album that has only rarely been surpassed, still standing today as one of the pinnacles of this extreme expression.

The vocals of Karl Willets created the perfect guttural helmsman to steer this war machine into its battles across an eternity of corpse littered alien worlds. The guitar onslaught of Thompson and Ward was never complex, it was determined to simply crush all hope, and weighed down by the plodding bass lines of Jo Bench and the drumming of Andy Whale, all hope WAS crushed. The album was the perfect accompaniment to the universe of its subject matter, and in return the sci-fi geek elements crossed this band over past the borders of the standard metal listener. Suddenly you were moshing out with the kid down the street who kept his nose in his books and dice most of the time. And it was cool! It still fucking is.

If I had to record the highlights of this album within the narrow boundaries of this review, it would be impossible. Just trust me that every song is damned unbelievable, whether it's "Plague Bearer" or "Lost Souls Domain". Sure "Eternal War" and "Through the Eye of Terror" may have had some of those famous grooves to them, but there is nigh a moment of imperfection across this bloodied landscape. It's a flawless expression of doom and gloom in a belligerent shell. This album is more doom than most actual doom metal albums. That it came candy coated with artwork from Games Workshop artists themselves was an idea born of brilliance, the two mediums converge in grisly harmony on this album. And while Bolt Thrower later would steer away from this precise subject material into other battlefields, it's not something that really needed repeating. This concept was mastered in 1989. Period.

Are you a poseur or not? There is no time for peace. Only eternal war.

Verdict: Epic Win [10/10] (this world now twisted, brought to its knees)

http://www.boltthrower.com/