Bolt Thrower - Mercenary

Some line-up changes in the Bolt Thrower camp, but you'd never know it from this chunk o' coal. New drummer Alex Thomas lays down the beats appropriately, and gone are the off time snare hits that Andy Whale revolutionized earlier in the game, but that's about it for major changes here. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. This panzer could run forever as far as I'm concerned, and as long as BT are content to run this semi-groovy war metal into the dirt, I'll shell out the cash. The swirling, choking atmosphere that is a recorded Bolt Thrower experience remains, yet there are some shimmering rays of hope in the melody lines added. On again off again vocalist Karl Willets is thankfully back, even if it's just for this album. Can't spot too much to separate this from The Fourth Crusade or ...for Victory, but if thought of as a continuation of one central idea, magnified in scope due to a higher degree of competence, this is a winner.