...For Victory 1994

"While I think that Bolt Thrower's first couple of records were not very good in terms of musicianship (the ideas were interesting), the band eventually improved as musicians and settled on a heavy, groovy, melodic and yet brutal, and unmistakably original, type of death metal, and the band certainly deserves their status as the ultimate war metal band.

"... For Victory" is a very typical 1990s Bolt Thrower album, thankfully, containing heavy and melodic death metal tracks, whose emphasis is on powerful riffage. As is typical of Bolt Thrower, each song contains a few riffs which are repeated a lot and which, within the boundary of the individual song, are both in extension of, and contrast to, one another; this is something Bolt Thrower are very good at and they exploit this ability very well on this album. While there are some heavy and catchy riffs on this album, the groove is largely absent - but in hindsight, that is not a problem since it comes to full fruition later on "Those Once Loyal". Well, writing the groove off completely is perhaps incorrect, since a track like "Tank Mk.I" (great title!) is actually quite groovy.

"... For Victory" is a very robust death metal album and epitomises Bolt Thower's brand of war metal. I would recommend it to fans of death metal who do not mind death metal that emphasises heaviness.

(review originally posted on metalmusicarchives.com)"