Bolt Thrower - Those Once Loyal CD

A huge avalanche of tanks, covered in dust and smoke, rolls in unstoppably. Steel giants drive, shoot, explode, burn, flash and crash. The whole firmament is covered with heavy smoke from the fires. The long overdue new BOLT THROWER album “Those Once Loyal” comes along like this steamroller of destruction. The last floor "Honour - Valor - Pride" is still from the year 2001. The band has never been one of the fastest songwriters, but finally the tank is rolling again. And this time the English go into battle stronger again, as the only true BOLT THROWER singer Karl Willets could be recruited again. Not that Dave Ingram was bad! But most of the fans will surely agree that Karl's voice has a little more charm, just fits the music perfectly and is more "BOLT THROWER". Right from the first riff you can tell immediately which band is playing the CD in the player. In typical BOLT THROWER fashion, the grooving yet melodic riffs really crush everything with frightening intensity. Tight, straight and powerful, Death Metal thunders out of the speakers. Compared to the predecessor, the songs are a little shorter and maybe a bit faster. But basically the band is still within the framework they have been in since the “War Master” album, with which the style was defined and cemented (for eternity?). The differences between the albums are rather small and mostly relate to the production. So the Brits don't deviate a millimeter from their chosen path and offer their very own sound. On “Those Once Loyal” the wall of guitars was turned back a bit so that the other instruments could be heard better. The result was more of a “band sound”. Everything is bold and powerful as always, but also a whole lot clearer and therefore more precise. With the third song "The Killchain" BOLT THROWER continue their tradition of the same riff over and over again. The series went from "World Eater" to "Cenotaph" to "Embers" to "Powder Burns" and finally now to "The Killchain". That's what I call perfect recycling. I don't want to talk about lack of ideas here. The band has once again presented a traditional and at the same time fresh album, peppered with nine top-class Death Metal hits. Surely no fan of the band will be disappointed. Critics will again denounce the lack of further development, but in times of constantly changing trends and bands adapting commercially, such an uncompromising work as "Those Once Loyal" is only one thing: a damn lot of value! The group is getting closer and closer to the self-imposed goal of recording the perfect BOLT THROWER album.