Bolt Thrower - War Master

Bolt Thrower's War Master rolls forward like a tank column, a 1991 death metal album that made groove every bit as deadly as speed.

Recorded at Slaughterhouse Studios in 1990 with producer Colin Richardson, the Coventry band's third album moved away from the grindcore blasts of Realm of Chaos toward a heavier, more melodic attack. Karl Willetts' guttural roar, Jo Bench's rumbling bass, Andrew Whale's drumming and the twin guitars of Gavin Ward and Barry Thomson locked into a crushing, mid-paced grind.

What Dwells Within charges in with some of the album's fiercest blasts, while The Shreds of Sanity grinds forward with menacing patience. Cenotaph revives a riff first heard on the earlier World Eater, and the title track War Master is a battlefield anthem from its first crushing chord to its last.

The record's war-themed imagery and relentless heft established a sound the band would refine for years to come, and its influence still echoes through death metal today. Melody and brutality sit side by side, the tempos favor a grinding, unstoppable march, and the guitar solos cut through the murk like flares.

For extreme metal collectors, this is an essential slab of British brutality, built to be played loud, often and preferably with the neighbors out.