Memoriam
For The Fallen

The Bolt Thrower were one of the best death metal bands, capable of creating a personal style, unique and unmistakable. An image linked, at least at the beginning, to role-playing games like Warhammer, lyrics dealing with war, slow, rhythmic, and martial tempos that then suddenly accelerated with devastating fury. After about ten albums and EPs, Bolt Thrower disbanded in 2016, a year after the death of their last drummer Martin Kiddie Kearns, an event from which the band never recovered.

Karl Willets, the singer of Bolt Thrower, however, does not give up and decides to form a new band, recruiting Andy Wale, the first drummer of Bolt Thrower, Frank Healy from Benediction, and Scott Fairfax, a live guitarist also for Benediction.

After two excellent singles, Memoriam recorded their first LP "For The Fallen" in 2017. Everything, from the band's name to the album title, lyrics, riffs, and even the cover image is a clear nod to Bolt Thrower, after all, Karl Willets spent 30 years in that band.

The sound is the slow, rhythmic, and martial style that Bolt Thrower got us used to, and here too, there are sudden accelerations and fast and deadly solos, although sometimes there are very brief thrash-based guitar fills, which seem somewhat artificial and ultimately unnecessary, in my opinion. The themes, in most of the tracks, are dedicated to war and an impending and tragic fate for the human race, against which to rebel and fight. Karl's voice is no longer that dark and fierce growl of old times; at certain points, the singer struggles and becomes almost hoarse, but overall he holds up well. Compared to the legendary Bolt Thrower, the sounds partially abandon the rawest death metal and soften, approaching slightly more thrash sounds, although this could depend on the classic clean production style of Nuclear Blast.

The album opens with Memoriam, a track clearly dedicated to Martin Kiddie, as the lyrics make evident:

"How constantly we think of you / With hearts and eyes that fill / The love in life we had for you / In death grows stronger still".

The track begins with a dark and slow riff, and as soon as the main riff starts, it becomes clear how much this album bears the stamp of Bolt Thrower. This pattern repeats in the subsequent tracks, both the slower and rhythmic ones "Reduced to Zero", "Resistance", the faster and furious "Corrupted System", and those where the two sides of the band mix "War Rages On", "Surrounded By Death", just like what happened, guess what, in Bolt Thrower.

In short, in the inevitable comparison with Bolt Thrower, Memoriam come off as losers (as would most bands out there), but aside from this aspect, it's a good death metal album, definitely above today's average.