While doing Zoom press for their fourth studio album, To The End - due for release on March 26th via Reaper Entertainment - Memoriam vocalist Karl Willetts provided BraveWords with a status update on Bolt Thrower. The surviving members, which also include guitarists Gavin Ward and Barry "Baz" Thomson, and bassist Jo Bench are still mourning the loss of Martin Kearns, who had been Bolt Thower's drummer from 1994 to 1997 and again since 2000 and died unexpectedly at the age of 38 in 2015. 

BraveWords: What is the status of Bolt Thrower? Where does it lie in your heart? 

“They lie in a distant, dark part of my heart,” Willetts laughs. “I have very, very found memories of being in that band and doing that. But it’s all gone now and very much firmly in the past. Something I’m very proud of and it’s part of my heritage. Something I’ll never deny or decry. Yes, it’s very very firmly ensconced in the past … never to be revisited.”

BraveWords: Bolt Thrower are on the very short list of the greatest bands I’ve ever witnessed in a live setting. Would you agree?

Willetts: “Yes, but we didn’t do that much, so what we did was always something special. And that has a special place in so many people’s hearts. I’m very well aware of that. I’m very proud of it. But it’s gone. It’s done. It’s pst. Everyone move on now. Move along.”

BraveWords: Why did Bolt Thrower hold back on touring? You could’ve circled the world every time with each album, particularly with the glorios finale, 2005’s Those Once Loyal. 

Willetts: “Yeah, I dunno. It was very much to do on our own terms. And we’ve pretty much done the same thing with Memoriam, we pick and choose what we want to do. And it makes it that much more special. We just did what we wanted to do and it kind of worked out that. We never wanted to tour months on end and it’s true today. We are in an older place with responsibilities like kids and stuff like that. So the idea of going away and touring for an extended time doesn’t hold any interest to us whatsoever. We are happy doing the occasional shows like on the weekends and things like that. That suits us fine.”

BraveWords: So you never had that Rod Smallwood/Steve Harris bug to do a show a day for an entire year!?

Willetts: “Oh, that would kill ya! That’s insane. No.”

Watch for the entire interview to appear on Streaming For Vengeance next month. 

Memoriam is:

Karl Willetts - vocals (ex-Bolt Thrower)
Frank Healy - bass (ex-Benediction)
Spike T Smith - drums (Sacrilege, Conflict, Killing Joke, The Damned)
Scott Fairfax - guitars (As The World Dies, ex-Benediction)