UMUR
"The Peel Sessions 1988-90" is a compilation album by UK, Coventry based death metal act Bolt Thrower. The compilation was released through Strange Fruit in October 1991. It compiles three Peel Session recordings. The first session was recorded in January 1988 with original Bolt Thrower vocalist Alan West. The second session was recorded in November 1988 with new vocalist Karl Willets and the last session was recorded in July 1990 between the releases of Bolt Thrower´s second- and third full-length studio albums "Realm of Chaos (Slaves to Darkness)" (October 1989, Earache Records) and "War Master" (February 1991, Earache Records).
The first four tracks with West on vocals are thrash metal/hardcore type music and all tracks ended up being re-recorded and included on the band´s debut full-length studio album "In Battle There Is No Law!" (June 1988, Vinyl Solution), although at that point Willets had joined and sang the vocals. The Peel session from November 1988 predominantly features early versions of tracks which would find their way unto "Realm of Chaos (Slaves to Darkness)" but "Dominion" is exclusive to this release. "Destructive Infinity" from the July 1990 Peel session would be included as a CD bonus track on "War Master". The last three tracks on the compilation are "War Master", "Afterlife", and "Lost Souls Domain". The two former would be re-recorded and included on the "War Master" album, while the latter is a more death metallic version of the original track from "Realm of Chaos (Slaves to Darkness)". "Lost Souls Domain" is a real gem in my book.
"The Peel Sessions 1988-90" is an interesting release because is shows what Bolt Thrower sounded like between their first three album releases, and the development that their material went through before being recorded in their final studio versions. The tracks with Alan West on vocals aren´t that great, but the two subsequent Peel sessions are much more interesting, and also features much better sound productions and more intriguing songwriting. A 3.5 star (70%) rating is deserved.