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Bolt Thrower > Cenotaph > 1991, CD, Earache Records > Reviews > televiper11
Bolt Thrower - Cenotaph

Prophet Of Hatred (Preach To Infinity) - 70%

televiper11, August 28th, 2014
Written based on this version: 1991, CD, Earache Records

The Cenotaph EP was my earliest exposure to Bolt Thrower. It came at a time when I wasn't quite ready to make the leap into death metal (having been more of a hardcore/crossover/crust kid at that point) but something about the band's impeccably destructive rhythmic stomp and blood dimmed atmosphere of pure hellish war stuck with me and it wasn't long before I was full on the Bolt Thrower train. You could say the Cenotaph EP helped enlist me.

Underground metal of any kind was extremely difficult to come by where I grew up so I'm not certain how I came across this release. I certainly wasn't aware of the War Master album from which the title cut is culled, so I also don't mind the overlap between this EP and the full-length. "Cenotaph" is one of those eternal Bolt Thrower songs that just absolutely slays. The main riff is utterly, headbangably hypnotic. It just transfixes you. And Karl's voice casts out from it with an authority that expects and demands obedience. And the hulking tonnage that is the rhythm section (so often imitated, never duplicated) subsumes you -- all individuality gone, like a grunt at the front, as Bolt Thrower steamrolls you into submission. Between the huge riffs, killer tempo changes, sick leads, and weighty rhythms, obliteration is all that could possible occur.

"Destructive Infinity" didn't make the final album cut and is included here as a b-side. It is well worth hearing as it lays the brick work for The IVth Crusade in that it is overall slower, doomier, and more focused on a single dark epic riff that occasionally trades places with the usual tank tread/ton of bricks style riffing. I can see how this might've messed up the pace of the full-length but am glad they released it in this way. I'm less impressed with "Prophet Of Hatred," not because it is a bad song but moreso that it is tonally jarring: culled from the Realm Of Chaos session, it has that record's gnarly production and grindier vibe. Still obviously BT but also a shift in style that back pedals their sound slightly. Once you adjust, its a great tune. Less great is a pointless live cut of "Realm Of Chaos" that is so crudely captured that it borders on unlistenable.

Subsequent reissues of the full-lengths have included much of this material so as to render this EP relatively obsolete. An old-school completist like myself though finds more value in hearing things as they were originally issued and I still use this EP as a springboard for people new to Bolt Thrower: enlist or die!