Bolt Thrower to play free show in Holland
British extreme metal pioneers Bolt Thrower have issued the following update:"Bolt Thrower has always had a special bond with the Atak Club in Enschede, Holland. The small, 300-capacity club was one of the first to start booking extreme bands in the late '80s. It was famous for its out-of-control moshpits, stagedivers jumping off the balcony and crowd-surfing wheelchairs! It's the only club Bolt Thrower have played on every tour in the last 20 years, 11 times in total, a true cult club and a real home from home for us.
"Sadly, in 2008, after being battered beyond repair over the years, the old lady had to close. Atak gave Bolt Thrower the honour to play the last show ever there, which we celebrated with 300 guests as a special free show.
"In 2009, Atak moved to a new building and now we would like to celebrate our first show in the new Atak with another special free show. After talking to the guys from Atak and our favourite beer brewery Grolsch, who are also from Enschede, we came up with the following:
"The show will be on April 29, and Asphyx, Rotting Christ and Dew-Scented will be joining us on stage. But to stop people just ordering tickets and then not turning up, we will be asking for a 5-euro 'deposit.' Then at the show you will get a special 'No Grolsch, No Glory' Bolt Thrower t-shirt and a flip top bottle of Grolsch beer!
"The new Atak is capped at 800 people, so if you want to help celebrate a new chapter in the Bolt Thrower / Atak history, you'd better hurry up and get your tickets here."
Rotting Christ will support Bolt Thrower on their upcoming European tour.
Video footage of Bolt Thrower performing at the Rock Area festival in Loreley, Germany on August 22, 2009 can be viewed below (courtesy of "666maelstrom666").
Bolt Thrower indefinitely postponed plans to record a new studio album after the band realized that the new stuff it had written "just doesn't match up" to the group's last CD, "Those Once Loyal". "We have a lot of pride in our back catalogue, and we refuse to turn into one of the many bands (like the ones we grew up listening to) who end up releasing crap, and we're also not prepared to compromise by instead releasing an album of cover versions or a 'best-of' album," Bolt Thrower explained in a statement.
Bolt Thrower in 2006 completed a European tour in support of "Those Once Loyal", which entered the German Media Control chart at position No. 76 - the group's highest-charting release in Germany so far. The follow-up to 2001's "Honour, Valour, Pride" was recorded at Andy Faulkner's Sable Rose studios and was the band's first album since the return of original vocalist Karl Willetts as a full-time member.