BOLT THROWER - Realm of Chaos (Slaves to Darkness)(EARACHE - LP 1989)
These are some bands, some
albums, which I believe do not need an introduction. Bolt Thrower is one such
bands certainly, as not only they’re one of the oldest and longest running
European death acts, but also one, which is one of the best ever. Personally I
think you know shit about death metal, if you don’t recognize this logo or that
characteristic, brutal style of this British commando. And of course it’s a
must to have their albums, especially that unlike some other British bands,
like Carcass or Napalm Death, Bolt Thrower never really did a shamefully bad
and worthless album! Sure, I can’t say that their entire discography is
perfect, but all records are at least solid and great. And some are causing fuckin
earthquakes!!! Going back to their early days, I must say that the first record
“In Battle There Is No Law!” is probably one that I like least, as it sounds too
crusty, punky or whatever, but not enough brutal in my opinion, although it’s
still a good album and I understand that the style of music on this LP is a
natural consequence of the influences the band had in the 80’s. And what the
scene was like back then, as death metal was barely existing yet. But the second
record, “Realm of Chaos (Slaves to Darkness)” is one, which I already really
fuckin love. This album is for me one of the first European death metal
masterpieces, released way back in 1989, and to this day – and it’s been 26
years since its recording – it sounds great and crushes like crazy.
I don’t really wanna describe
the whole history of the British death metal and grind core and what were the
influences for all these bands like Napalm Death, Carcass and Bolt Thrower in
their beginnings. But surely the scene in UK was quite specific and the roster
and history of Earache Records actually shows that perfectly, as this label paid
as much attention to the 80’s metal scene as to the punk / crust / hardcore
bands. Death metal around 1987/88 was still pretty much in its infancy and
mainly focused around the US bands (Death had two records released by 1988 and
although I do remember about some other classic bands, including obviously
Possessed, for me Death is the first pure death metal band, which released an
album). But in this review I would rather skip that part about the historical
background of the British death metal scene and just focus on one particular
album. And that album is in my opinion quite a big improvement when compared to
the crusty debut LP. The songwriting is better, the riffs are better, I just
love the harsh vocals of Karl Willets here and finally the production, although
still quite rough, is just awesome, surely less chaotic, when compared to the
first album.
Take the first song… “Eternal
War” has signs of that characteristic Bolt Thrower-ish riffing and style, which
was developed on the future albums of the band and which is so damn flesh ripping
groovy, extremely memorable and brilliantly headbanger’s friendly, but also
aggressive. I just love it, really. Yeah, the opening riff is bloody good, but
I also like that this song speeds up nicely and turns into one ferocious beast.
Sadly, it’s quite short, so it’s not like those future epic Bolt Thrower
anthems, but it still is the best song here and an instant winner for me.
“World Eater” is in very similar vein and also brings the main riff played in
that characteristic, classic Bolt Thrower style and damn, every time I hear it
I just must bang my skull. This is a powerful shit!
What makes “Realm of Chaos” a
stand out among these old British records is how slow it is in many parts. Such
“All That Remains” goes just against the tide when compared to the other
successful, classic British combos (Carcass and Napalm Death), which were
freaking fast and grinding like crazy. Meanwhile this song opens with slow,
almost doomy riff, which sounds really damn heavy and later transforms into
killer mid paced riffage. Oh yeah, get yourself ready for a real bloodshed. Finally
I also just love “Lost Souls Domain” and how this song begins, with almost
thundering bits and heavy, slow riffage. It also starts to grind brutally after
some time and this is what I call a massive, bone crushing old school death
metal! And I must admit that these slower / mid paced pieces are my favourite
moments of the album, they’re really fantastic and I almost feel like the album
looses a bit, when Bolt Thrower fastens up. And they do that here and there, so
“Realm of Chaos” has the strong grind core and crust influence still present. Just
give a listen to “Through the Eye of Terror” and “Dark Millennium”. These
crusty influences may have probably never been really lost in the sound of Bolt
Thrower, but I guess their later albums cover it with more brutal and groovy
death metal. Here they’re still quite well audible. I must also say that when
Bolt Thrower plays some fast tunes, it is almost obvious what country they’re
from and what age is the music, as it sounds so bloody typical for that old
British Earache roster. Especially as the music has that filthiness and rawness
in the sound, which is so damn different to some more polished US death metal
records of that era of late 80’s / early 90’s. Finally it needs also to be said
that “Realm of Chaos” is far from being
a technical album. The playing is rather simple, with not much complexity in
the riffs department and so also the drumming is pretty standard. The songs
structures are also rather easy, what probably makes the songs even more
memorable.
A lot of people pays much
attention to the whole presentation of “Realm of Chaos”. Surely the vinyl looks
way more special than the other stuff from those days, being released on nice
gatefold, with huge artwork and with that booklet. And yes, the graphics are
from the Warhammer games / comics / whatever… which I am not a big fan of,
although surely all the artwork included to this album looks nice, especially
the fold out front cover. These graphics fit perfectly to the entire lyrical
side of the album, which is all about wars and apocalyptic themes. It all gave
Bolt Thrower a special character and distinguished them from other death metal
bands for good. Their music should be played in every war machine, when going
to the battle. I don’t know why the modern armies didn’t realize it yet haha!
So… nothing more needs to be said here. Classic LP it is!
Standout tracks: “World Eater”,
“Eternal War”, “Lost Souls Domain”
Final rate: 80/100
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