I know there aren't many Bolt Thrower enthusiasts here, but I don't care. They're one of my all time favorites, even if that love is fundamentally rooted in nostalgia. They're like the AC/DC or Motorhead of death metal - they just keep writing the same album over and over again. In that sense, they're more like Motorhead, though, who do manage to find SOME new ways of keeping the formula fresh, even if they're no longer able to make albums that compete with their best releases of yore.

The big selling point of Those Once Loyal is that vocalist Karl Willets is back in the band. This makes me giddy with childish glee, as Karl has always been one of the very best and most charismatic death metal growlers. If you don't like growling, then he is not going to change your mind, but if you have a mind for the nuance of cookiemonsterisms, it's hard to deny Karl's appeal. There's also a new drummer on TOL, and I must say he's a great improvement over the last guy. Bolt Thrower's original drummer, Andy Whale, was not a great drummer, but he had a unique style that was unquestionably contributory to the cannonized playbook of death metal drumming. The guy they replaced him with, who was quite young as I recall, was a perfectly competent drummer, but too often when I listened to his playing, I'd think, "That's not what Andy would have done..." The new guy is much more respectful of the Bolt Thrower drumming heritage, but not at the expense of his own personality, which he quite tastefully asserts throughout the course of the album. This, you could say, is one of those small adjustments to which I mentioned earlier.

Another is the bass. Bolt Thrower's sexy-in-a-scary-British-way Jo Bench is definitely not a good bass player - she tends to just follow the guitar - and while you can always FEEL her bass, you could never really hear it, until now. The bass guitar is mixed quite loud on this album, but it's not woofy of offensive, and to show off, she even pulls out a few new tricks, like the awesome counterpoint bass line in "Entrenched." Great bass lines in this kind of death metal are few and far between, but Jo has really done a great job on this album.

As for the guitars, well, they're just what you'd expect from Bolt Thrower. They have a unique tone that is instantly identifiable as Bolt Thrower. If you heard studio outtakes of these guys jamming on Beatles songs, you'd know it was Bolt Thrower. I'm especially happy with the abundance of mindlessly whammied solos by Baz. These are something of his trademark, and yet he's taken to soloing pretty sparsely over the last few albums. His playing on Those Once Loyal hearkens back to Warmaster and IVth Crusade (which is probably the zenith of his lead playing.)

But first and foremost, what makes Bolt Thrower enjoyable is the songwriting. Death metal (of the non-melodic variety) has moved inexplicably away from songs in the last five or ten years. Who writes proper verses and choruses anymore? Yes, I love it when Martyr lines up 100 different riffs in a song, but it takes a fucking brilliant mind to do that, and brilliant minds are, to be brutally honest, in short supply in the metal scene. Bolt Thrower don't bother to create some new musical paradigm - they stick to the basics, but they do it well, and they build solid songs out of catchy, mid paced riffs, interesting (if monomaniacal) lyrics, and well arranged vocals.

Is this the best Bolt Thrower disc? No. But then, like I said, Bolt Thrower appreciation is fundamentally a nostalgic act. I don't know if I could possibly convince an adult with no BT experience that Realm of Chaos is the be-all-end-all that I know it to be. But it meant something to me when I was young, and Bolt Thrower's conviction and integrity have never since failed to impress me. Those Once Loyal probably ranks alongside the last cannonical BT release, For Victory, but it also has moments of greatness to compare with the best material on IVth Crusade. Listening to Bolt Thrower is like seeing that great friend that lives on the other coast. The experience of the moment is heightened by an always-present nostalgia for the times when such meetings were not annual.

Matt

My Ranked Bolt Thrower Discography:

1. Realm of Chaos
2. Warmaster
3. The IVth Crusade
4. In Battle There Is No Law
4. For Victory
5. Those Once Loyal
6. Mercenary
7. Honour Valour Pride