Hell yeah it's Bolt Thrower time.
One of the first bands to get me listening to death metal and still to this day one of the heaviest. Bolt Thrower have been around for-ever and play no bullshit straight up death metal. They stand as one of those rare bands that has a sound that they excel in. They've been doing that sound since the beginning and they'll be doing it until the bitter end.
What makes their sound stand out a bit is a combination of a) every instrument being right around the same pitch b) bass and guitar leads are almost always the exact same and c) Martin Kearnes' particular style of drumming. Instead of the balls to the wall, 4 minutes of blast beats and shredding Bolt Thrower takes a slightly slower, low slung, groove oriented approach. Their songwrighting is validated by the fact that almost every song on almost every album they've ever written is neck-breakingly killer.
(If this opening riff doesn't get you then you're probably dead.)
While listening to this album on my way to work today I realized something. Bolt Thrower has been doing Amon Amarth since before Amon Amarth was. Honestly, listen to ...For Victory and then listen to ANY Amon Amarth album (pick one, any one) and tell me they're not similar. Swap out Bolt Thrower's lyrics about the Civil War, World War I and the like, replace them with goofy lyrics about being a Viking and you've got Viking Metal.
...For Victory stands out to me as one of Both Thrower's better albums though this can be difficult to substantiate since they can tend to be pretty similar. I'm not sure when the next one will come up, but I can guarantee I'll launch in to three paragraphs about how BT are the true Viking Metal forefathers (and foremother).
Part of me wishes they all had swords in this picture.
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