First of all, let me say a big thank you to Mark Deathbringer formerly of Venomous Records and Steve Miller formerly of Extremities Productions whose constant berating, name-calling and sexuality questioning towards my lack of Bolt Thrower worship in the late 90s caused me to break down and pick up Realm Of Chaos. My life hasn’t been the same since.

My original opinion of Bolt Thrower was they were a pretty boring, generic death metal band who seemed to write the same riff over and over, song after song, album after album. I condemned them for their lack of progressive musical change and mocked their lack of technicality. I was wrong. So very, very wrong.

After listening to Realm Of Chaos I quickly became hooked on the patented mid-paced chugging heavy death metal with simple riffs, machine gun drumming and violent snarls. I quickly gathered up every Bolt Thrower release I could find, soon owning every album they’d recorded to date, plus a half dozen bootlegs, their Peel Session appearances, demos, and anything else I could get my chug-riff addicted hands on.

Honour Valour Pride is the latest full length offering by the Coventry-based chuggernaut known as Bolt Thrower, and only effort featuring former Benediction front man Dave Ingram, and only their second full length offering since their split from Earache Records in the late 90s. The line-up on this effort is much different than the disappointing Mercenary, with Ingram taking over for Karl Willets and Martin Kearns replacing Alex Thomas behind the drum kit.

Listening to Honour Valour Pride is like sitting in a gun turret and spraying bullets down on the enemy with a gattling gun while missiles rain from the heavens. The music has an incredibly thick, heavy production, and may very well be the band’s meatiest sounding effort to date with a deep bass sound, skilfully simplistic riffs and a solidly relentless bashing behind the kit. The vocals, while not in the league of Karl Willets, are solid, though do sometimes sound like they’re being performed with a sheet of Plexiglas between Ingram and the microphone.

I’ve heard a lot of people complain that Honour Valour Pride sounds exactly like every other album they’ve done, which I don’t think is the case at all. While they do write in the same style and keep the same basic elements as they have in the past, Honour Valour Pride is slower than other albums, and the song writing, while not vastly different, is still very solid.

One thing I’ve come to learn is that you’re either a diehard Bolt Thrower fan or you can’t stand them at all. Personally, I’m a diehard and can’t wait for their next full length. Whether you love them or you hate them, you have to respect an extreme metal band that’s remained intact for more than 15 years and unlike other older bands like Napalm Death, Carcass, Morbid Angel and Cannibal Corpse, they’ve never compromised to sell more albums and have always remained true to their style.

If you’re into slow chugging death metal, then you absolutely must own Honour Valour Pride and every other album Bolt Thrower has put out over the years. Fans of earlier Bolt Thrower material definitely won’t be disappointed and will get a lot of play out of this release. Anyone who isn’t geeked for the next album coming out in late 2005/early 2006 is obviously a wanker.

Review byTeufel