Tag: Bolt Thrower

Vinyl Pickups – May 2022, pt. 2

Shadow of Intent – Primordial
Shadow of Intent – Reclaimer
Bolt Thrower – Those Once Loyal

About two weeks ago while looking for new sources for harder-to-find vinyl I came across IndieMerchStore. They sell licensed clothes, music, etc… for many different bands like Archspire, Black Crown Initiate, and Rings of Saturn just to name a few. Here I found a few albums that had been elusive previously. First is Shadown of Intent’s Primordial and Reclaimer their first and second albums respectively. Both are really good listens that keep you on your toes start to finish. I believe these are also my first Deathcore albums, which is fitting given how highly I’d rate them in that pantheon. Now their third album has been released but I didn’t like it anywhere near as much. It was also the album that forwent the use of Halo lore as a narrative backdrop. Next is my third acquisition of Bolt Thrower’s, Those Once Loyal. This is likely the last album I’ll get of theirs but is no less exceptional. According to the what I’ve read from interviews Bolt Thrower won’t release another album so Those Once Loyal is not only one of their best but also their last. Strangely Bolt Thrower also started out using a pre-existing Sci-Fi universe, Warhammer: 40k, as a backdrop for their early releases as well.

Metal Vinyl – March 2022

Usually I put the music pictures first but one of the albums present has graphic imagery so I want people to be aware of that in advance.

There’s a well-known UK record label that helped popularize extreme music coming out in the late 80’s called Earache Records, and it’s online store is a great source of metal vinyl. Earlier this year I ordered some vinyl from them that are on my must-own list and they came in about two weeks ago, I just haven’t gotten around to writing about it ’til now. Included is an album any burgeoning fan of metal should check out: Iron Maiden’s Powerslave. Iron Maiden is the kind of metal I can still play around my wife without her complaining, which is a sentiment that extends to nothing else here. Next is the second of the three Bolt Thrower albums I wish to own, this one being …For Victory. Their albums IVth Crusade, Those Once Loyal, and the aforementioned are just phenomenal Death Metal. After this is the graphic-warning album Abysmal by The Black Dahlia Murder, who are one of the first Death Metal bands I really got hooked onto. This Abysmal album is in my opinion the last of their great albums but they’re still releasing new material. Last and most certainly not least, a band I will prop up as long as my memory functions: Opeth. My first true Death Metal band, Opeth is a great mix of heavy and soft atmospherics, harsh screams and serene clean singing. I was able to get a copy of Watershed, Ghost Reveries, and Blackwater Park. Watershed was their last album before they switched to psychadelic prog-rock. Ghost Reveries and Blackwater Park are where the band peaked and I believe some of the best albums of any genre. Only partially shown is Bloodbath’s Unblessing the Purity. This 10″ of pure evil is four tracks of exceptional DM though I prefer the dingier sound of their first two releases.