The Agent of Oblivion Metal Alphabet: B is for BOLT THROWER

[Agent of Oblivion]

No, I'm not picking Black Sabbath. Everyone knows about them already. I'm not picking Bathory either, because I like the other kind of black metal better.

I kind of consider Bolt Thrower to be the AC/DC of death metal. In that respect, one knows exactly what they're getting with a Bolt Thrower record. Fast, downtuned death metal about how people kill each other. Not much more to add to that, honestly. Yes, they take their name from the Warhammer strategy game, but who cares. The band was formed in a bathroom at a punk show.

Let's explore their discography, shall we? Starting from the top, 1986's In Battle There Is No Law

Bolt Thrower - Challenge for Power

Oh yeah. Early death metal. Fast, sloppy, and mean. This is really only a few steps from hardcore punk. The label they signed to at the time offered only that genre of music, which isn't terribly surprising, given the musical climate in Britain at the time. Mainly only Americans (and Sepultura) were exploring the beyond-heavy side of things. I realize this isn't terribly groundbreaking music, or anything that should bowl you over as a listener, but they did manage to evolve as a band, so maybe my AC/DC comparison isn't terribly accurate. Moving on:

Bolt Thrower really started to come into their own with 1989's Realm of Chaos. The Warhammer game still figures predominantly in their music, as they have songs about different shit in the game (I've never played it, so I don't know how to phrase it) This one's called "Plague Bearer"

Bolt Thrower- Plague Bearer

They were on Earache records by this point, so they really shed the hardcore punk sound in terms of their production and became A DEATH METAL BAND.

They didn't stop here by any means, though.

 

[Agent of Oblivion]

While on tour to support Realm of Chaos, they put together the Cenotaph EP, which I think is their best song.

Bolt Thrower - Cenotaph

Love that fade-in. Makes you turn it up louder, so it's loud as fuck by the time it really kicks in. That's the good stuff, there. Totally uncompromising death metal.

They put out Warmaster (featuring "Cenotaph") after that, and it was so fucking metal the studio burned down. This also has the best album cover since Metal Magic.

Bolt Thrower - War Master

Intro sounds like Slayer, but then again everything used to, so whatever. Dig the guy with the broadsword though? Fuck yes. This is a really damn good death metal record. Nothing but war and killing and downtuned guitars. Here's more from this one:

Bolt Thrower - The Shreds of Sanity

Bolt Thrower - Destructive Infinity

 

[Agent of Oblivion]

The IV Crusade

Now we've moved back in time a little to HISTORIC KILLING!

Bolt Thrower - Ritual

Bolt Thrower - Celestial Sanctuary

Kind of reminds me of South of Heaven in terms of it being a fast band going slow-heavy (for them).

They maintained that attitude on ...For Victory, which was their best-sounding release yet. Great production, and probably their zenith as a band. Good thing, because they had a really shitty tour and split up after that.

Bolt Thrower - For Victory

Bolt Thrower- Tank (Mk. I)

Yes, that's a song about dying inside of a TANK. These guys kick so much ass.

 

[Agent of Oblivion]

They then left Earache/got dropped, and signed with Metal Blade. Good idea. They made more money and didn't change anything except the lineup which was fucked anyway. If you haven't got the point yet, it's more death metal about warfare. This stuff should be self-explanatory by this point.

Bolt Thrower - Mercenary

Bolt Thrower - Honour, Valour, Pride - Contact -- Wait Out

Bolt Thrower - Those Once Loyal

So yeah, they've kept doing the exact same thing over and over again for the past twenty or so years, but that thing rules.

 

[Wario Lemieux]

I only have two B bands in my iTunes, go figure. I like Bolt Thrower, I just don't have any Bolt Thrower.


BEHEMOTH - Slaves Shall Serve (OFFICIAL VIDEO)

and

Between the Buried and Me - Selkies: The Endless Obsession *FULL SONG

 

[Big Papa Paegan]

Beyond the Embrace - "Compass"

Bleeding Through - "Love Lost in a Hail of Gunfire"
((One of the very rare -core bands that actually seems to understand how to create HEAVY riffs along with the melodic choruses and generic breakdowns.))

Bitchslicer - "The Online Predator"

Brujeria - "Colas de Rata"

Brutal Truth - "Birth of Ignorance"

Bane of Existence - "Profound Isolation"

 

[Gary]

Baroness

Blood Farmers Seriously under appreciated and short lived Stoner/Doom.

Blut Aus Nord One of the Best Black Metal acts from France.

Bongzilla

Borknagar

Burning Witch Featuring Stephen O'Malley, G. Stuart Dahlquis and Jamie Sykes.

As far as Bolt Thrower goes, I tend to lean towards IV Crusade. I love the fast/slow dynamic, which reminds me of Asphyx and Autopsy at times.

 

[Wario Lemieux]

which reminds me of Asphyx and Autopsy at times.

Hey! Save it for the A thread!

 

[jimmy no nose]

Believer:
Believer - Sanity Obscure (Studio Version)

I just got their new album after a 16 year hiatus and it's pretty good aside from an awful collaboration with the dude from Killswitch Engage.

 

[Vitamin X]

I'm still mentioning Bathory despite what Agent says. Blood Fire Death is an awesome album.

Bathory-Blood Fire Death

 

[Agent of Oblivion]

If you're only going to click one of the discussionless links up there, make it Blood Farmers. Those guys are fucking sick.

 

[Slayer]

For the B's I'm going to break out what I'm sure is TSM's favorite fantasy metal band, Blind Guardian. Admittedly I'm not as big a fan of them as I was earlier this decade, but there's still some good work in their œuvre.

Blind Guardian started out as Lucifer's Heritage, but changed their name to avoid implications of Satanism and grouping with the black metal movement. They started off as a fairly good Helloween speed/power clone in the late 80's, with a heavy fantasy theme that they carry to this day, releasing Battalions of Fear (1988) and Follow the Blind (1989) with minimal fanfare. It wasn't until their third album, Tales from the Twilight World (1990), when they began their gradual switch to a more epic sound and incorporating many folk elements into their song.

(Majesty) - from BoF
(Damned for All Time) - from FtB
(Lost in the Twilight Hall) - from TftTW (incl. guest vocals from Kai Hansen of Helloween/Gamma Ray)
(Lord of the Rings) - from TftTW (showing their folky side, singing about the famous poem from the titular work)

From there they entered into what would be their peak period, making the total change from speed-based metal to more epic folk metal, releasing Somewhere Far Beyond (1992), Imaginations from the Other Side (1995) and Nightfall in Middle Earth (1998). NiME was the first BG CD I ever bought, owing largely to the fact it was their first album to get major distribution. NiME is based on Tolkein's The Silmarillion and features ten music tracks with eleven spoken word tracks in between. Admittedly I've never read The Silmarillion, which is odd given the fantasy book geek I used to be (I've also never read LOTR, for that matter), so the spoken word tracks do nothing for me and I deleted them after ripping the CD to my comp. Originally that was my favorite BG album but now I find it a bit difficult to work through, so Imaginations currently holds that title for me.

(Journey Through the Dark) - from SFB
(Script for my Requiem) - from IftOS
(Into the Storm) - from NiME

After taking some time off, which led to singer Hansi Kursch doing guest vocals on a number albums around this time, most notably with Jon Schafer's Demon's and Wizards project), they came back and made 2002's A Night at the Opera. Largely abandoning any speed at this point, they went overkill on the epicness of this album, so although many fans cite this as their best album, I find it to be an overproduced mess and won't be posting any songs from that one. One interesting item of note is that up to this point BG had incorporated the same quartet going back to their first album, but their drummer got tired of the new epic direction and left to go form his own band that harkened back to the older speedier days.

Their most recent work is A Twist in the Myth (2006), which toned down the overproduction prevalent on NatO and was a fairly decent album. Admittedly, though, after giving it a few runs when I bought it at the time of its release I haven't listened to it much since, although I do still enjoy the song "Otherland".

(Otherland) - from TitM

 

[Agent of Oblivion]

I'm going to listen to your fruity fantasy stuff and give it an honest chance. The last time I heard Blind Guardian was when I was listening to nothing but death bands and grindcore, metalwise. You can imagine my reaction.

I figure if I can like King Diamond now, I can be objective to anything.

 

[Agent of Oblivion]

Ok, the Lord of the Rings shit is intolerable, but that "Journey Through The Dark" is not bad.

 

[Urban Warfare]

[flash=200,200]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YFRVgYJ1QUg[/flash]

 

[Urban Warfare]

double

 

[Slayer]

Since the "O" article appears to be up in the air right now, I'm gonna go back and cover some bands I missed the first time around.

In 1999, a group of big name Swedish metal musicians, including Mikael Åkerfeldt (Opeth), Anders Nyström and Jonas Renske (Katatonia), and Dan Swanö (multiple*), formed Bloodbath. This band was originally intended as a one-off tribute project to the classic Florida and Swedish death metal bands, releasing the three song Breeding Death EP in 2000.

*Swano could warrant his own article for all his contributions to metal as a musician and producer. I won't write it, although I will address one of his other bands later

(Breeding Death) - from Breeding Death
(Ominous Bloodvomit) - ibid
(Furnace Funeral) - ibid

They decided they had a good thing going though and released a pretty good full length album two years later, entitled Resurrection Through Carnage

(Ways to the Grave) - from Resurrection Through Carnage
(So You Die) - ibid
(The Soul Collector) - ibid

After RTC, Akerfeldt left to concentrate on Opeth, resulting in the band bringing in Hypocrisy's Peter Tägtgren. At the time this was somewhat questionable as Tägtgren, while fairly good in his work for Hypocrisy, didn't seem to have the voice to fit Bloodbath's work. This hesitance was shattered with the release of Nightmares Made Flesh in 2004, and Tägtgren actually manages to somewhat outshine Akerfeldt on this CD. The production of NMF is a little brighter than RTC as well, cutting down on the sludgy tone utilized on the first two albums. This has been one of my favorite death metal albums from this decade.

(Cancer of the Soul) - from Nightmares Made Flesh
(Soul Evisceration - ibid (I know, "soul" shows up a fair bit in their song titles)
(Outnumbering the Day) - ibid

Tägtgren left shortly after the release due to "conflicting schedules". Over the next four years, Dan Swanö would also leave (over musical differences). Akerfeldt would come back they released a rather pedestrian Unblessing the Purity EP, which I believe suffered greatly from the loss of Swano. The follow up, full-length album The Fathomless Mystery, was a bit better, but still a bit lacking IMO.

(At the Behest of Their Death) - from The Fathomless Mystery

 

[Agent of Oblivion]

I'm busy w/ life things.

You guys can go DIY on my next letters if you want!

Obituary
Possessed
Fuck a Q, also know as "In defense of Pantera"

 

[Agent of Oblivion]

Ok, the Lord of the Rings shit is intolerable, but that "Journey Through The Dark" is not bad.

Upgrade: Somewhere Far Beyond fucking rocks. I'm as surprised as you. Those guitarists are no joke, man. That superquick palm muted shit, that accurate, for that long? Arthritis.