bolt thrower is a (in my opinion totally underrated) death metal band. being around for over twenty years, their name being a reference to the tabletop warhammer, they produced eight albums with always the same bolt thrower style. their sound was once described to me as like a freight train, crashing into a terminal station with full speed: they’re not that fast, but their impulse is so strong that they feel like steamroller rolling over you. lyrically they are centered around war and its consequences.

let me start with a track from their newest album, those once loyal, called the killchain. an incredibly goovy, powerful tune. its hard to not somehow start moving when listening to it, or even start headbanging.

for the rest of this post, i want to present one song of each of the four newest albums. let me begin with the 1994 album …for victory.

the next song is mercenary from the 1998 album mercenary. slower than the above two songs, but nonetheless powerful.

the fourth track is 7th offensive from the 2001 album honour – valour – pride.

finally, the last piece is those once loyal from their 2005 album those once loyal:

to those once loyal now wreathed in crimson
solemn reminder of silent sacrifice
to the once loyal forever wrapped in glory
in white crossed acres – lines of sorrow laid

arena is a british progressive rock band i saw live in 2007. here, i want to present four songs from their albums contagion and pepper’s ghost. the first song is never ending night from the 2003 album contagion. its a calm song, already displaying one big feature of arena: beautiful and catchy melodies.

the second song, riding the tide, is an instrumental song from the same album.

the pepper’s ghost album is a concept album, telling a story of five heroes in 19th century london. bedlam fayre is the opener:

the album is ended by a 13 minute song called opera fanatica, including some opera elements. this is one of my favourite arena songs.

enslaved is a norwegian black metal band, fonded 1991, which eventually shifted more in the direction of progressive metal. let me begin with a track from their 2001 album monumension. this track, hollow inside, is mostly calm, more like progressive rock, until during the second half, a louder passage appears.

the next two tracks are from their album isa. these two tracks make the album my favourite one from enslaved, and i prefer to listen to them both in a row. (unfortuantely, i didn’t find a video on youtube playing them right after each other. too bad.) the title song, isa, is full of power, with some progressive aspects, while the second song, ascension, reverses this relation. especially the last 2 1/2 minutes of ascension are just amazing.

(and yes, i already raved about ascension several times on spielwiese.) the next song is from their 2006 album ruun, and the one following after that from their 2008 album vertebrae. both are good examples of enslaved songs intertwining black metal with nice progressive parts.

the last (metal) track i want to present is the opener from their newest album, axioma ethica odini. there was a fan video contest for this song, and the below video is the winner of this contest. the song itself

finally, here’s a bonus track from the monumension album. a true piece of viking “metal”. this is more like it would have sounded back then, than most other songs categorized as “viking metal”. calm music, a background choir, sung in old norse.