Bolt Thrower

UK's Bolt Thrower were one of the first bands that helped establish grindcore as a viable genre, and thankfully another one of those outfits to stray from their ultimately choking roots into more accessible directions. "War metal" is still their tag, though it has tempered to mid-paced death/thrash, which they still pull off quite well. Long-time front-man Karl Willets yields to a new recruit, ex-Benediciton Dave Ingram, who sounds more like a cross between Napalm Death's Barney Greenway and Gorefest's Jan-Chris de Koeijer. "Inside The Wire" and "Suspect Hostile" are directly commemorative of early Six Feet Under, while "Honour" resembles the slower grooves off Gorefest's noteworthy swan song, 1998's Chapter 13. The repetitive, Obituary-like riffing in "7th Offensive" and "K-Machine" is more groove-based, and "A Hollow Truce" and "Pride" pack Martin Kearns' machinegun double-kick blast-beats tightly around Jo Bench's battering-ram bass lines. The battleground cover art provides fitting visuals for the death and destruction contained within, even though the music doesn't mow you down like 1995's ...For Victory once did.