Those Once Loyal was a pivotal moment in my appreciation of the concept of meta-enjoyment. I was first beginning to use the M-A forums regularly and had heard of Bolt Thrower on and off, and I knew they were a fairly well-respected band, but when they announced their breakup there was this seemingly spontaneous eruption of worship, "Wow they broke up because they couldn't top the album, amazing, such dedication to their art, I wish SUCKtallica could do that". What really sold me was when the crotchety old men on the Thrashmageddon forums also collectively agreed that it was their best album, when those guys pretty much never praised anything post 1992 or so. To be honest that's probably the main reason I never really bothered listening to the band to any appreciable extent. Either the album was truly a masterwork of the death metal artform, or it was the quintessential in-crowd death metal album. The stress of having to determine which of the two was true didn't seem worth the effort.
