Bolt Thrower have finally officially broken up after going on hiatus following the death of their long-term drummer Martin “Kiddie” Kearns. Vocalist Karl Willets forming Memorian with original, still-living drummer Andy Whale heralded this. Bolt Thrower had not released an album in over a decade and their studio output had been a pale shadow of their 1980s grindcore peak. The band released a statement on their website:
On behalf of ourselves and Kiddie’s family, we would like to thank everyone for their thoughts and support over the last 12 months. Together with Kiddie’s family we made the conscious decision to keep his unexpected death a private matter, and to take time out to deal with it all.
When Kiddie joined us back in 1994, although he was only 17, he instantly improved Bolt Thrower as a live band, and no one was more loyal to, and prouder to be in Bolt Thrower than him.
We spent over 20 years together, touring the world, with 3 different vocalists, but he was so much more than just a drummer to us. So when we carried his coffin to his final resting place, the Bolt Thrower drummer position was buried with him. He was, and will now forever remain THE Bolt Thrower drummer, our Powerhouse and friend Martin “Kiddie” Kearns.As for the rest of us, Bolt Thrower has been our way of life for 30 years, never driven by money, fame or ego, but by our own personal principles and values that have guided us through life, and which bonded us as friends long before Bolt Thrower was even formed…
“We are not now that strength which in old days
moved earth and heaven; that which we are, we are;
One equal temper of heroic hearts,
made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.”– Tennyson – 1833
Tags: Bolt Thrower, death metal, Grindcore
Bolt Breaker Throw Up.
The girl Jo Bench looks like a contemporary hot Doom chick.
Is there even such a thing as contemporary doom?
Contemporary doom is just stoner or psychedelic rock, not metal.
Yeah, that’s a better way to phrase it.
“Throat Breaker Blow Up”
Jo Bench still looks like that these days? This is an old pic I guess? I don’t follow this band since REALM of CHAOS.
I was speaking to my hound Flash and he agreed she can have a new career in them pornography movies, you know those hot movies they show late at night on the station channels higher up on the cable converter box.
It’s from the War Master era, apparently. And yeah, she’s hot.
Indeed she is. Jo Bench has aged very well.
I am wondering if she has slick hammy inner thighs with reddening on pale Limey flesh and if she sometimes smells strongly after two gigs with no shower. The funniest part of the photo is how the dudes have a trained habit of not staring at her ass and crotch, and I am sure there is one dick master of the group who is constantly checking the eyelines of other members at all times to see when a peek is sneaked with their punishment being one lump of sugar instead of two during tea time.
I agree that later Bolt Thrower studio material doesn’t live up to their former output, but the fact that they didn’t want to release anything new since 2005 is actually something pretty decent, in light of the terrible and tedious stuff most bands from the eighties have been putting out for the last decade.
This is unfortunate but, I guess no band can last forever. First 3 albums were great, they pretty much descended into mediocrity afterwards. In Battle There is no Law was their best. They knew when it was time to stop making albums and when it was time to call it a day, gotta give them credit for that. Great live band, it just sucks that the only time I saw them was in a tent in the fucking rain.
Now begins the historical revisionism where the metal elite try to figure out where they went “downhill.” When until about a year ago it was been pretty well established this is one of the few bands who never lost their integrity.
People have always said Bolt Thrower went downhill after Realm of Chaos or War Master. Claiming Those Once Loyal is the ultimate Bolt Thrower album is the same as saying Metallica peaked when they started playing “Fuel” during NASCAR television broadcasts.
For Victory was better than War Master (and The IVth Crusade) and was also their last worthwhile album.
Well I’m gonna try those today but I’ve always stopped after War Master, they seem a band that just ran out of ideas and wrote one unending mid tempo chugger that spanned across many albums before they and realized they weren’t doing anything. THEN they broke up after a decade of inactivity, geniuses I say.
Bolt Thrower’s first two were fantastic bloody shitpiles (in a good way), followed by War Master and The IVth Crusade which certainly have their midtempo chuggers (notably more boring in the latter). For Victory takes the previous two albums and makes a better, more concise, coherent version. They proceed to become completely bland afterwards.