Albums

Album Review: Hail Of Bullets

[Album: …Of Frost And War]
[Label: Metal Blade]

The War on the Eastern Front between 1941 and 1945 fiercely encompassed central and eastern Europe. Soviet Russia’s role was pivotal to the outcome of World War Two and the demise of both Nazi Germany and Nazi-occupied Europe. In this war-themed death-metal release, Dutch band Hail of Bullets recounts the events of that time through songs about Operation Barbarossa, the Ladoga Massacre, women-only combat regiments, Stalingrad, and the fall of Berlin.

The band are no strangers to the death metal genre. They are an experienced set of musicians from a variety of established Dutch death metal bands. Hail of Bullets is made up of vocalist Martin van Drunen (Pestilence, Asphyx), guitarists Paul Baayens (Thanatos, Asphyx) and Stephan Gebédi (Thanatos), bassist Theo van Eeklen (Houwitser) and drummer Ed Warby (Gorefest). In fact, any ‘new’ death metal releases will not sound much like this release. This is old-school death metal harking back to bands such as Obituary, Celtic Frost and Bolt Thrower. There are no blastbeats, no technical virtuoso guitar work or outlandish soloing. This is the death metal of old.

After releasing their debut promo, the band were quickly signed by Metal Blade and got to work on this debut full-length release ‘…Of Frost And War’. Consisting of re-recorded versions of the four tracks from their promo release plus eight new songs, as well as a limited digipack featuring a pop-up tank!

All the instruments and vocals were recorded in Excess Studio’s in Rotterdam, Holland with Hans Pieters. These tracks were then mixed and mastered in Sweden by Dan Swanö. The guitars on this album create a huge wall of sound with a slight industrial tone. This is due to Swanö’s work during production, where he channelled the clean recorded guitar tracks through various amps to create that buzzing guitar sound. The drums could easily get lost amongst them, but they rarely do. As a vocalist, Van Drunen is regarded as an influential figure. His coarse vocals sound harsh and uneasy most of the time, yet you can understand most of the lyrics on the album. On ‘Ordered Eastward’ Swanö makes a guest appearance and his input on this track works well with Var Drunen’s third person narratives. The opening track ‘Before The Storm (Barbarossa)’ is an introduction to the theatre of war. The slow synth playing leads to the mechanized rolling of a tank regiment before the band plows into the album.

‘…Of Frost and War’ draws influences from the bands current and past outfits. Van Drunen’s vocals go back to his days with Asphyx and Pestilence, while conceptually they go back to Bolt Thrower. The guitars of Gebédi and Baayens are tuned to a drop-B, and the massive palm-muted doom riffing from the days with Asphyx can be heard on ‘General Winter’ and ‘Stalingrad’. All in all this is a devasting album and a great introduction for people looking for an insight on how death metal once was.

For fans of: Obiturary, Bolt Thrower, Asphyx
Band link = Hail Of Bullets

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