Honour, Valor, Pride

You have to admire Bolt Thrower. Over a decade into their career and they're still producing hulking slabs of grinding ugliness, and what's more, keeping their albums interesting too. Perhaps only Darkthrone could be said to have managed a similar feat. So, with this being album number seven, should we expect anything new from the Birmingham quintet? Of course not!

Having said that, their are some slight changes; Dave Ingram (ex-Benediction) replaces Karl Willets on vocals, while Martin Kearns takes over on the drum stool. Fear not though, as both fit in admirably, Ingram's growling voice (even lower than Willets') perfectly complements Bolt Thrower's downtuned grind, and its usually possible to understand what's being sung, which is particularly good, since on this album Bolt Thrower have produced some excellent lyrics. The subject matter: why, war of course. It is Bolt Thrower, you know! Worthy of note are the three title tracks, "Honour", "Valour" and "Pride" cunningly positioned at tracks 3, 6 and 9, which between them set the tone for the album.

Musically it's hardly dissimilar to Bolt Thrower's previous work, and if anything the songs are actually a little slower, which allows axemen Gavin Ward and Baz Thomson to team up and produce some epic, bowel-shaking slow riffing. Check out "Honour" for proof, with its eerie depiction of an abandoned battlefield. And when they do speed up, as on "A Hollow Truce", the effect is no less forceful. The only fault is that some riffs are played for too long, to the point where they begin to grate, for instance at the end of the thunderous "7th Offensive".

It may be facetious, but really if you like Bolt Thrower you will like this, because its similar to everything they did before. If you haven't heard Bolt Thrower, but like death metal or fancy a listening experience akin to being run over by a tank, this is a damn good listen.