Bolt Thrower "The IVth Crusade" CD

With "The 4th Crusade" Bolt Thrower succeeds in the final breakthrough with a significantly increased budget, but also a significantly slimmed down songwriting. The most expensive cover in the band's history to date, as the license to use it was very cost-intensive ("The Entry of the Crusaders in Constantinople" by Eugène Delacroix from 1840 - exhibited in the Louvre) and the title indicate the prevailing theme - the 4th Crusade. It took place in 1202-1204 and its aim was to conquer Egypt. Instead, Christian Constantinople (then of the Eastern Roman Empire and Christian Orthodox) was conquered by Roman Catholic troops, leading to further schism in the Christian Church. But other (fictional) military conflicts are also addressed, so it is not a pure history lesson .
Musically, it should be noted that, as I mentioned earlier, the song structures have been significantly decelerated and simplified. On the one hand, this leads to the fact that slower passages often prevail on the album, the songs are thus much catchier than on the previous albums, but the songs also do not differ so much from each other. There are hardly any particularly outstanding riffs, but the pieces are kept very compact. Karl's vocals are very clear and distinctive, especially I find the title track very successful and "Celestial Sanctuary" is also particularly gripping. "This Time it's War" is a very dragging song, which thus unfolds its full effect. But all in all there is no song on "The 4th Crusade" that doesn't manage to grab the listener in its own way. At least that's how I feel. "Spearhead" is a continuation of "Cenotaph", a cool idea of the band to continue the song from the "War Master" album. The outro "Through the Ages", in which Karl speaks the lyrics, is a song about the wars in which Great Britain or the British Empire was involved from 43 AD onwards, from the conquest by the Roman Empire to the Gulf War in 1991. Perhaps this would be an idea for a full-length death metal story if all the conflicts in human history were set to music like this. Or a commercial for the arms industry (which, sadly, would probably still go over well these days).
So what's the conclusion? Bolt Thrower, by dropping some of the old trademarks such as their grindcore elements and reducing song structures, have managed to write an album that, in my opinion, has made it into a timeless classic. Lyrically, it is also a very mature album compared to the previous albums. It always leaves me very thoughtful, especially when I look at today's conflicts in the world and their sometimes very trivial reasons. Who does not yet own the album or knows (for whatever reason) - listen and buy!

Official promo video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

Sample: https://www.youtube.com/watch?...