Members of British Bolt Thrower band are true veterans of death metal. They debuted in 1988 with 'In Battle There Is No Law' album, and after that they recorded classics such as 'Realm Of Chaos' or 'The IVth Crusade'. They're one of the few bands, that after so many years didn't change their style of play, and didn't started playing music that's temporary 'on top'; they didn't ever go for any comprimise. Jarosław Szubrycht talked about war techniques and slow death metal with Gavin Ward, Bolt Thrower's guitarist.

What makes 'Honour Valour Pride' different from other Bolt Thrower releases?

Well, there aren't many differences. It's just a seventh Bolt Thrower full-length album, made for our fans. We tried to continue style of play that we began on "Mercenary", but also we wanted to get better, and much stronger sound - and finnaly we've done that! We don't have to search for originallity. In our opinion, 'Bolt Thrower' name works as a trademark logo, that belongs to reliability corporation. When you bought a cd with our logo on it, you don't expect experiments, but you surely know what kind of music the cd will include. We play death metal for years for our own idea, and with every next album recording we try to increase our playing skills, to sound better. Anyway, we didn't keen too much into albums. Concerts are the most important....

Anyway, releasing of 'Honour Valour Pride' was really a big thing. Where did you recorded this album?

Thanks for nice words. To tell the truth, I must say that we recorded our newest album in few places. We've moved from one recording studios to another, when we've just convinced that somewhere else our music will sounds better. We've produced the album by ourself, with a little help of Andy Faulkner, who helped ous before in producing "Mercenary". Recordings and mixing the material took us about five months, so as you can see, we've worked hard to get this effect.

"Honour - Valour - Pride" is an unique album, because of the big changes in band line-up. At first, Dave Ingram from Benediction sings again with you, and second - Martin Kearns, drummer returned the band. What do you think about this new crew?

Although Karl recorded all vocal parts on Mercenary, Dave played on every concert which promoted this album, so he feels now good in our party as a vocalist. Althought that, during first day of recording "Honour Valour Pride" weren't easy - Dave needed to change his style of singing abit, you know, customise it to our music. But final effect is rewarding. However, the Martin's question is a bit funny. We've kicked him from the band just after signing deal with Metal Blade. He was moving through bad times in his life, he was often unavailable for many days, he was missing rehearsals, and so on... We get conclusion that we don't need a drummer like him, so we've thrown him away. Next step was inviting Alex Thomas for contribution - the bad things was that he played great during 'Mercenary' recording session, but he was useless on concerts. So, we've asked Martin for returning back to band - and he didn't even thought about denying! Now he plays much better than before, and we don't have any problems with him.

Bolt Thrower image was always connected with war. But nowaday, don't you think that it's a bad idea for inspiration of the musician?

Good thing is that nobody screwed up for our image. And fuck this war, fuck them all!. Whole our image, based on connecting science fiction with war motives, and lyrics about mighty warriors, has got many more meanings, and saying that we only approve war and violence, is a big mistake! Only fool can say that's our music is only filled with militarism, anyway, nobody accused us for that.

Yeah, but times has changed.

Nothing has changed! There were many wars over the world, and the only difference between them is that now you are able to see them on the tv. And i can't imagine us, to become a victims of accusation.

Nowadays, many death metal bands try to play faster and faster, but you still play in your style. Bolt Thrower's death metal, however is heavy, is rather slow...

We didn't start playing music yesterday. When we started Bolt Thrower, we were a huge fans of Slayer, Discharge and Voivod, and as many other young bands, we tried to play as fast as we were able to play. But after that, we've discovered Candlemass' music, and we understood, that when you play faster, you lose the heaviness of the music. And we always knew, that the essence of our music will be heaviness! But sometimes we plays faster, eg on concerts, where fans request our older material...

'Honour Valour Pride' - how did you get idea of that album's name?

It's a fragment from the title track off the '...For Victory' album. During recordings of this album we just knew, that one of our next albums will be named that way. We often in lyrics call to mind to our older records. It's kind of game, we plays with our fans.

Are you going to celebrate 15 years of Bolt Thrower? Maybe some live cd, or DVD?

No, we don't plan to do something like this. If we will play any concert, that will look interesting in our opinion, we will probably release it as a bonus cd to full lenght album. Requesting same money as a full material from fans for just a concert record is just a stealing!

"Honour Valour Pride" is your second cd released through Metal Blade Record. Was that a good decision to leave Earache?

When we left Earache, their situation was getting much and much worse. You know, we get much money for recording album from them, but album promotion was poor, also there was a lack of interest of Earache management, how their bands are doing. We were going to left Earache, even if any more labels will release our cd's. But we weren't alone - Napalm Death, Cathedral, Godflesh... - everyone is giving up and leaving Earache. They didn't pay many bands for their hard work, for many years, so now they got many lawsuits. Now, probably their managament is going to sign the next contract with another star of the dace scene... At last, we're at Metal Blade records, which has got distribution all over the world, good promotion, and where bands like ours got their respect.

Thanks for the interview

Interview translated from Polish by Rolnik (Thanx)