Tell Gavin Ward that BOLT THROWER hasn't progressed, or changed, in years, and his response is a heartfelt "thanks!" The guitarist has a clear-cut vision for the band, one that's stayed true for fourteen years now (and is displayed in fine form on the band's new CD, Mercenary). To his mind there's no sense in mucking around with it. "We have actually progressed, and experimented with new things, you know," he says with a smirk. "But you've never heard a bit of it! We left it all on the cutting room floor, because we knew we'd gone too far with it." The core of BOLT THROWER - Ward, guitarist Baz Thomson and bassist Jo Bench - are more interested in sticking to their sound than branching off into other forms of music. According to Ward, vocalist Karl Willetts and ex-drummer Andy Whale were "the ones who wanted to try new stuff, bring new bits in. Me, Baz and Jo were always united. We wanted to keep it pure."

BOLT THROWER's sound, for the uninitiated, is a finely-honed, majestic brand of war metal, which has evolved from the chaotic In Battle There Is No Law into modern-day metal classics like War Master and For Victory, heavy on the mid-tempo, double-bass drums thundering, creating a supremely heavy, doomy, epic quality to their martial songs of battle and warfare. The band's years of experience show in their songwriting, where every harmonic guitar run, every drum fill, is a necessary part, each song rolling forth with the lumbering grace of a Sherman tank, oblivious to trends or commercial concerns.

Fans might be a bit confused at who, exactly, is in BOLT THROWER now, particularly in the vocal position. After the band's last album, 1994's For Victory, word got out that Willetts and Whale were quitting. Enter ex- PESTILENCE/ASPHYX vocalist Martin van Drunen, and an unknown young kid on drums. Some gigs followed, but as the months stretched to years and no follow-up to For Victory surfaced, the band's future seemed in doubt. Then came word that the band was leaving longtime label Earache.

"They offered us another contract, a much smaller contract," Ward confirms. But dissatisfied with Earache's direction ("Christ, now you've got techno bands, shit like DUB WAR...") BOLT THROWER struck out in search of a new, more supportive label. Metal Blade was more than happy to offer the band a deal. "It's good to be on a metal label, and Metal Blade is worldwide," Ward says, indicating that the band has already seen a big increase in promotion, and a decent US tour might finally be in the works.

With most of a new album written, the only problem that remained was van Drunen. "He's got this disease, alopecia areata, which was causing his hair to fall out. We had some festival dates booked, and he wanted to cancel the shows because he didn't want to be seen with his hair falling out. We've never been a band that cares about shit like that anyway, and we didn't want to pull out of those dates." Willetts stepped back in to help do the shows, and soon he was recording Mercenary with the band in Chapel Studios. Though Willetts performs on Mercenary, there was little hope that he'd be sticking with the band. "Karl takes great pride in what he's done [in BOLT THROWER]," affirms Ward, "but he left college to join this band. He'd been our tour driver, and was a big fan, but he sort of put his whole life on hold for BOLT THROWER. He's going back to pick up where he left off."

The new voice in BOLT THROWER is another familiar face in UK death metal, Dave Ingram, formerly of BENEDICTION. And according to Gavin, things have worked out perfectly. "It was good to have Karl on the album; we were never too sure how Martin was gonna hold up in the studio anyway... And this will give Dave a year-and-a-half of touring, and being in BOLT THROWER, before it comes time to write new music or record again. I wouldn't have wanted him to come in and write or record until he was more a part of the band." With the new album out and well-received, and global touring on the horizon, the four-year lag between For Victory and Mercenary is just a distant memory, not that it bothered Ward to begin with. "I've spent fourteen years in BOLT THROWER. Downtimes are irrelevant. We're still always BOLT THROWER." - Keith Bergman

This interview is printed in issue #26 of PIT MAGAZINE