I bought this album for the first time in 1993 or something. I liked it, I didn't like it, my friend bought it from me and I accepted his cash. That's the story about my first contact with Bolt Thrower. I have been trying to buy/trade the album again for a looong time, and I finally have completed this task now. Now I have all the Bolt Thrower back catalogue, except their debut album. It's a bit hard to be found...

How does it sound now, when I heard it last time about seven(!) years ago? Well, it sound good! The band sounds sick, dirty and very heavy, just like we all want them to sound. They haven't sold their souls for corporate music business and I raise 'em a toast or 665 toasts (666th toast will be risen when Karl Willets returns to the band, not before!!!).

Guitars are bit muddy and somewhat buried under drums (a lot of double-bass drumming, the trademark for the band, although pretty sloppy on this one at times) and bass, but still sound kicks arse. Guitars must be tuned very down, I quess and their sound, well, it's a bit hard to be described, but I'd say it's quite crusty. Bolt Thrower might have been one of the heaviest bands around 1989. This album is the proof of it! Low grunted vokills by Karl Willets are a bit more human, than on next albums. Only a bit...

Art of 'Realm of Chaos' is taken from Games Workshop's legendary Warhammer and Warhammer 40,000 so it's really cool! I remember the aura of mysticism, when I first had this record: Ugly music and art from those role-playing games. It was weird... The art suffers from the size on CD-version, though, the vinyl version with big lyrics booklet is absolutely fantastic.

The eleven songs that make this album are mostly mid-paced, but there's also slower parts. Intro and outro are fitting with the theme of this record: War (at least most of the lyrics deal with it). No prisoners taken, everybody and everything are brutally terminated. CD version bonus tracks (oh those were the times...) fit perfectly on the album.

This album is not the best Bolt Thrower release to date, but still I keep it as a minor classic. But some of the songs are classic: 'Eternal War', 'World Eater', 'Through the Eye of Terror', you name it... 'Realm of Chaos's raw, crusty and pounding metal of death is immortal! And so are Bolt Thrower.

Rating: 8- (out of 10) ratings explained

Reviewed by Lane
03/07/2002 14:14