The IVth Crusade is the fourth studio album by the British

British people

The British are citizens of the United Kingdom, of the Isle of Man, any of the Channel Islands, or of any of the British overseas territories, and their descendants...

 death metal

Death metal

Death metal is an extreme subgenre of heavy metal. It typically employs heavily distorted guitars, tremolo picking, deep growling vocals, blast beat drumming, minor keys or atonality, and complex song structures with multiple tempo changes....

 band Bolt Thrower

Bolt Thrower (band)

Bolt Thrower are a British death metal band from Coventry, England. They formed in 1986 and released their first album with Vinyl Solution in 1988. The band then shifted to a new record label, Earache Records, soon becoming one of the best selling bands on that label. Their current label is Metal...

. It was recorded at Sawmill Studios in August 1992 and produced by Bolt Thrower and Colin Richardson

Colin Richardson

Colin Richardson is a British record producer, mixer and recording engineer. He has worked on over 100 albums, and is most frequently associated with heavy metal and its subgenres such as:*Anathema*As I Lay Dying*Behemoth*Bullet for My Valentine...

. The album was engineered by John Cornfield

John Cornfield

John Cornfield is a British record producer and sound engineer. He has been working from Sawmills Studios in Cornwall since 1982. As the chief engineer he has assisted some highly respected and regarded producers, including John Leckie and Tom Dowd, and has worked with a vast selection of artists...

 and mixed at Fon studios. It was also engineered by Alan Fisch and Steve Harris. It was released through Earache Records

Earache Records

Earache Records is a heavy metal-oriented record label based in Nottingham, UK and New York, USA. It helped to pioneer extreme metal by releasing many of the earliest grindcore and death metal records in the period 1988-1994.-History:...

 as Mosh 70 in 1992. The album title comes from the Fourth Crusade

Fourth Crusade

The Fourth Crusade was originally intended to conquer Muslim-controlled Jerusalem by means of an invasion through Egypt. Instead, in April 1204, the Crusaders of Western Europe invaded and conquered the Christian city of Constantinople, capital of the Eastern Roman Empire...

 and the capturing of Constantinople

Constantinople

Constantinople was the capital of the Roman, Eastern Roman, Byzantine, Latin, and Ottoman Empires. Throughout most of the Middle Ages, Constantinople was Europe's largest and wealthiest city.-Names:...

. The cover artwork is a painting from Eugène Delacroix

Eugène Delacroix

Ferdinand Victor Eugène Delacroix was a French Romantic artist regarded from the outset of his career as the leader of the French Romantic school...

, showing "The Entry of the Crusaders in Constantinople".

For this album Bolt Thrower slowed down considerably compared to War Master, focussing more on playing heavy riffs and a thick sound. Album feature more death/doom

Death/doom

Death/doom, sometimes writes as death-doom or deathdoom, is an extreme subgenre of heavy metal. It combines the slow tempos and pessimistic or depressive mood of doom metal with the deep growling vocals and double kick drumming of death metal...

 metal-driven style, and which was influenced by doom metal bands including Candlemass

Candlemass

Candlemass are an influential Swedish doom metal band established in 1984 by Leif Edling , their leader and songwriter. The band is originally from Stockholm. After releasing five full-length albums and touring extensively throughout the 1980s and early 1990s, Candlemass disbanded in 1994, but...

 and Black Sabbath

Black Sabbath

Black Sabbath are an English heavy metal band, formed in Aston, Birmingham in 1969 by Ozzy Osbourne , Tony Iommi , Geezer Butler , and Bill Ward . The band has since experienced multiple line-up changes, with Tony Iommi the only constant presence in the band through the years. A total of 22...

. Particularly, this style is apparent in songs like "This Time It's War," or "As the World Burns."

"Embers" opens and ends as "Cenotaph" did on the previous album War Master

War Master

War Master is a Bolt Thrower album, recorded at Slaughterhouse studios in September 1990, produced by Bolt Thrower and Colin Richardson. It was released on Earache Records: Mosh 29 in 1991....

, and leads into "Powder Burns" on Mercenary

Mercenary (album)

Mercenary is an album by the British death metal band Bolt Thrower. It was recorded at Chapel Studios, Lincoln, England, December 1997 to January 1998. The album was produced by Bolt Thrower and Ewan Davis...

.

Track listing

all songs written by Bolt Thrower

1. "The IVth Crusade" – 4:59
2. "Icon" – 4:40
3. "Embers" – 5:18
4. "Where Next to Conquer" – 3:50
5. "As the World Burns" – 5:28
6. "This Time It's War" – 5:51
7. "Ritual" – 4:39
8. "Spearhead" – 6:47
9. "Celestial Sanctuary" – 4:37
10. "Dying Creed" – 4:17
11. "Through the Ages (Outro)" – 3:45
12. "Crown of Life" – 5:28 (bonus song on 1996 reissue)
13. "Lament" – 5:34 (bonus song on 1996 reissue)

Credits

• Karl Willetts - vocals
  Singing
  Singing is the act of producing musical sounds with the voice, and augments regular speech by the use of both tonality and rhythm. One who sings is called a singer or vocalist. Singers perform music known as songs that can be sung either with or without accompaniment by musical instruments...
  
  
• Gavin Ward
  Gavin Ward (musician)
  Gavin Ward is one of the two founding members of Bolt Thrower. He started out as the bass player early on in the band in 1986, and so can be heard on the first demo. For the second demo, he switched to playing lead and rhythm guitar. He plays lead and rhythm guitar on all albums, save Mercenary and...
  
   - guitar
  Guitar
  The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
  
  s
• Barry Thompson
  Barry Thompson
  Barry Thompson plays lead and rhythm guitar in Bolt Thrower on all albums. He co-founded the band in 1986. He is also the main songwriter of the band. Thompson also did some backing vocals on the Benediction album, Grind Bastard.-Equipment:...
  
   - guitar
  Guitar
  The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
  
  s
• Jo Bench
  Jo Bench
  Jo-Anne Bench is a death metal bass player from Leamington Spa, England. She plays bass in Bolt Thrower on all albums, but not on the demos. She has been vegetarian since 1984....
  
   - Bass guitar
  Bass guitar
  The bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....
  
  
• Andrew Whale - drums
  Drum kit
  A drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and often other percussion instruments, such as cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single person ....
  
  

Production

• Recorded, Produced & Engineered By Bolt Thrower & Colin Richardson
• Additional Engineering By John Cornfield
• Mixed By Alan Fisch & Steve Harris