Sometimes it seems to me that the world of music has some sort of steady balance between tradition and progression. For each band that expands the stylistic borders and makes something radically new, there’s always a band that doesn’t give a rat’s ass about these «creative pursuits»; a band that has already found its niche, its face, and its style. They simply have no need to fall over themselves in an effort to contrive god-knows-what for god-knows-whom. Such acts are often accused of treading the same waters and doing nothing new, which is completely wrong — they also develop and improve their music, but they do it deliberately. There are no hysterical leaps from one side to the other, and without haste, they thoroughly polish their art. The British quintet Bolt Thrower, a band whose new album has been eagerly anticipated for three long years, is one of these bands. Finally, we can present the dates on which «Honour Valour Pride» will hit the market — 17th of November in Europe, and 15th of January in USA (if Metal Blade’s USA site is to be believed). As a huge fan of the band, I wouldn’t have missed this album for anything. With that in mind, here’s what I have to say.

Bolt Thrower’s fans will all want to know whether the band has changed its style. Let me placate you straight away, guys — it’s the same Bolt Thrower we all know and love. It’s generally accepted that the band plays classic «British» death metal, i.e., a less brutal and more melodic version of classic Florida death metal. British death is usually characterised by the tendency to be melodic and euphonic. It is essentially a mixture of thrash gravitating towards hardcore, with a meaty, death metal sound and melodies that somewhat resemble Iron Maiden and Judas Priest. In other words, it’s melodic metalcore/deathcore. As for Bolt Thrower, I wouldn’t simply call their genre «death metal», but rather «doomdeathcore». My reason is that the band’s music has two important features: 1) slow, (death)doom parts with long, drawn-out guitar wailings, and 2) so-called mosh parts, which are mostly punkish in origin. These are the neckbreaking, rhythm-driven parts that really help you to scamper through the mosh-pit, busting hapless gapers’ noses and napes with prominent parts of your body.

Doomdeath has reigned supreme in Bolt Thrower’s music since the legendary «The IVth Crusade» came out. This made way for the hardcore fury of their next album, «…For Victory». Despite the presence of several fast parts, «Mercenary» (the follow-up) seemed so contemplative, and almost «calm»to me. In fact, I sometimes called it «battle rock», not death metal. After listening to «Honour Valour Pride», I can state with a clear conscience that this album combines all the best features of Bolt Thrower’s three previous albums — it has the moodiness of «b», the furious intensity of «…For Victory», and the powerful equability of «Mercenary». Additionally, there are a couple of new touches, which diversify the compositions somewhat and decrease the monotony. The result? I’ll be damned if it’s not the best Bolt Thrower album ever!

You don’t believe me? Don’t go anywhere; listen to the first song and see if Bolt Thrower isn’t at the peak of their creativity. Beautiful guitar melodies are followed by fast «tank» riffs, which sound more spectacular than usual due to the trademark guitar sound. Some of you may remember the guitar sound on «Mercenary», which didn’t seem juicy enough — but it’s now more than perfect. If there is a musical analog of heavy military machinery, then without a shade of a doubt, it is the guitars of Bolt Thrower. They are so juicy, powerful and hypnotic in their repetativeness that an image of a flawlessly working huge war machine unwittingly comes to mind. The guitars are so effective that many folks (once they hear the familiar rhythmic configuration), will happily scream and bang their heads like a dove crossing the street (which once happened to me, by the way). The aforememntioned rhythms take on a fast, jerky pulse, and they work marvelously.

Just in case you’re worried about your neck, I should mention that «Honour Valour Pride» has enough slow, epic parts where you can temporarily stop head banging and enjoy the simple, yet beautiful melodies which are characteristic of Bolt Thrower. Moreover, this album has some nice guitar solos that would even leave a guitar solo antagonist (like me) satisfied. As a rule, the bass guitar plays in unison with the rhythm-guitar, maintaining a density of insane proportions. Not only that, but it also compensates for the occasional «holes» that occur due to a slight divergence between the lead and rhythm guitar parts. The density of Bolt Thrower’s sound is also provided by the drums, which mostly moves along in «double bass» mode (a tempo that is considerably faster than their previous album).

One of the two «negatives» on this disc is the volume of the drum tracks. They aren’t nearly loud enough, especially in regards to the bass drums. When I try to imagine what this disc -could- have been, if only the drum parts had been mixed as they were on Lamb Of God’s last album, I witness a scenario no less devastating than the Communist revolution in Russia. The second drawback relates to the vocals of Dave Ingram. They are recorded inadequately, and not mixed as well as I would have liked. The volume is in a constant stat of flux, with Ingram’s phrases often ending with an indiscernable silent rattle. One can get the impression that the vocals weren’t worked on at all after they were recorded, and that they were stuffed into the mix without too much concern for the end product. By the way, the same problem existed Bolt Thrower’s previous album, so I sincerely advise these guys to give the responsible party a swift kick in the ass.

Despite my complaints, I’d like to comment on Dave’s work (which is his debut with the band). Having heard all the Benediction albums on which Dave occupied the mike before he joined Bolt Thrower, I can say with certainty that his vocals never sounded as harsh, raw, and corrosive as they do on «Honour Valour Pride». Of course, his intelligibility had to be sacrificed somewhat, as can sometimes be heard in his seemingly tired overtones, which sound like the vocals were recorded right after he finished a ten-kilometer cross-country run. But nonetheless, Ingram’s more than worthy as a successor to Karl Willets. With his fresh and more-brutal-than-ever vocals, Bolt Thrower’s music can only become more extreme, which is great, in my book! My bet is that all Bolt Thrower fans will like this as well.

In terms of structure, all songs are quite simple, but not to the point of being primitive. The first two-thirds of each song is usually comprised of two or three interchanging main themes, where as the last minute or minute-and-a-half is usually reserved for a new riff that ends the song. The transitions between themes are fluent and logical, as would be expected, given Bolt Thrower’s great composition skills, which are on par with their country mates from Benediction and Carcass. All these songs are simply great, but I’d like to especially emphasize the sheer magnitude of the opener (»Contact — Wait Out», which is also the name of the «Mercenary» cover, in case you didn’t know), and the second one (»Inside The Wire»). The later song has an initial riff that is a direct heir to the theme from «No Guts, No Glory». Then there’s the fifth track (»7th Offensive»), and of course, the album’s closer. (»Pride»). I don’t have the lyrics on hand, but there’s no need to comment on them — this is good old Bolt Thrower, after all!

Naturally, this stunning album is a must for all who are partial to Bolt Thrower, and for all who love beautiful, powerful, well-composed, and well-executed extreme music. If you’re only into «ultra-original» or avant-garde music, or if you’re an orthodox black or doom metal fan, you’d better find something else. I’m glad that Fono made all Russian extreme music fans happy by licensing «Honour Valour Pride» — get it now, believe me, it’s worth it!

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