''War Master'' is the third album by

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

death metal band

Bolt Thrower Bolt Thrower were an English death metal band from Coventry. They formed in 1986 and released their first album with Vinyl Solution in 1988. The band then shifted to a new record label, Earache Records, soon becoming one of the best selling b ...

. It was recorded at Slaughterhouse studios in September 1990 and produced by Bolt Thrower and

Colin Richardson Colin Richardson is a British record producer, mixer and recording engineer. He has worked on over 100 albums and is most frequently associated with heavy metal and its subgenres. Career Some of the bands he has worked for include: * 3 In ...

. It was released on

Earache Records Earache Records is a British independent record label, music publisher and management company founded by Digby Pearson in 1985, based in Nottingham, England, with offices in London and New York. The label helped to pioneer extreme metal by rel ...

: Mosh 29 in 1991. Whereas ''Realm of Chaos'' was dominated by

grindcore Grindcore is an extreme fusion genre of heavy metal and hardcore punk that originated in the mid-1980s, drawing inspiration from abrasive-sounding musical styles, such as thrashcore, crust punk, hardcore punk, extreme metal, and industrial. G ...

based blasts and riffs, this album abandons most of the grindcore influences for a sound that is more strictly death metal. Moreover, there is more melody in the music and the guitar solos, although some chaotic solos remain. This is also the final Bolt Thrower album to feature the

blast beat A blast beat is a type of drum beat that originated in hardcore punk and grindcore, and is often associated with certain styles of extreme metal, namely black metal and death metal,Adam MacGregor, ''PCP Torpedo'' by Agoraphobic Nosebleed rev ...

style of drumming (which can be heard on four songs - "Unleashed (Upon Mankind)", "What Dwells Within", "War Master", and "Afterlife"), before it was abandoned and subsequently never used thereafter in the Bolt Thrower discography. "Cenotaph" is a thematic continuation of the song "World Eater" from the previous record. The closing riff from "World Eater" is the same as the opening riff from "Cenotaph" and also used in "Embers" from ''The IVth Crusade,'' “Powder Burns” from ''Mercenary'' and "The Killchain" from ''Those Once Loyal''. The album was extensively sampled on Dutch

breakcore Breakcore is a style and microgenre of electronic dance music that emerged from jungle, hardcore, and drum and bass in the mid-to-late 1990s. It is characterized by very complex and intricate breakbeats and a wide palette of sampling sources ...

producer Bong-Ra's album ''

Full Metal Racket ''The Racket'' (formerly ''3 Hours of Power'' and ''Full Metal Racket'') is an Australian heavy metal radio show airing on alternative youth broadcaster Triple J. The show currently airs between 9pm and 11pm on Tuesday nights and is hosted by Lo ...

'', with allusions also including song titles such as "Bloody Cenotaph" and "Jo Bench".

Track listing

*All songs written by Bolt Thrower

Personnel

;Bolt Thrower *

Karl Willetts Karl Willetts (born 21 September 1966) is an English death metal vocalist, best known as the lead singer of Bolt Thrower and Memoriam. Biography Willetts joined the British death metal band Bolt Thrower in 1988. Before that, he drove the ...

vocals Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or without ...

* Gavin Ward -

guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected stri ...

s *

Barry Thomson Barry "Baz" Thomson is an English people, English musician, best known for being the lead and rhythm guitarist for death metal band Bolt Thrower until their disbandment in 2016. He co-founded the band in 1986, and was also the main songwriter o ...

s *

Andrew Whale Bolt Thrower were an English death metal band from Coventry. They formed in 1986 and released their first album with Vinyl Solution in 1988. The band then shifted to a new record label, Earache Records, soon becoming one of the best selling b ...

drums A drum kit (also called a drum set, trap set, or simply drums) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and other Percussion instrument, auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one person. The player (drummer) typically holds a pair o ...

Jo Bench Jo, jo, JO, or J.O. may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Jo'' (film), a 1972 French comedy * ''Jo'' (TV series), a French TV series *"Jo", a song by Goldfrapp from ''Tales of Us'' *"Jo", a song by Mr. Oizo from ''Lambs Anger'' * Jo a fictio ...

Bass guitar The bass guitar, electric bass or simply bass (), is the lowest-pitched member of the string family. It is a plucked string instrument similar in appearance and construction to an electric or an acoustic guitar, but with a longer neck and ...

;Production * Luton Sinfield - Photography * Pete Knifton & Ian Cooke at Maxjo Graphics - Artwork and design *

- Producer, Recording

References

1991 albums Bolt Thrower albums Combat Records albums Earache Records albums Albums produced by Colin Richardson {{1990s-death-metal-album-stub