HAIL OF BULLETS - III: The Rommel Chronicles

Hail of Bullets is probably the most important death metal band in 2013 dealing with war-related themes in its music. Yes, I know, Bolt Thrower is a beacon of the genre, and its merits cannot be erased or denied, not even for a second, but their latest studio release dates back in 2005. That is practically one year before Hail of Bullets were formed. Besides, Hail of Bullets is also one of the most important Dutch bands, some sort of national football team, the clockwork orange where Martin van Drunen is as relentless on stage as Marco van Basten was in the field (no matter if he played for Ajax, AC Milan or the Netherlands national). Martin van Drunen’s Ajax is of course Asphyx, the first love you never forget. There will be people who say that before Asphyx, in van Drunen’s life there was Pestilence, but Patrick Mameli was the team captain there. OK, I’ll just stop this and get to the point. Hail of Bullets can be compared to the Netherlands football national team. Yes, there are still a few good players (i.e. musicians), but the supergroup only has five spots (same as the computer game - Road to World Cup '98 when you could play indoors, five-on-five).

This record is titled III: The Rommel Chronicles and is the third release in the band’s career, and probably their most solid so far. The lethal combination of Asphyx, Bolt Thrower and Celtic Frost/Hellhammer - Tom G. Warrior worship! - plus the precise playing and raw sound, which are already a trademark of the band, plus the emotion they put in their song writing and their playing, make Hail of Bullets to be the unchallenged leader in this segment of death metal. I won’t dissect each song individually or tell you about each riff, or how good a drummer Ed Warby is. No. I’ll just say that if you include authentic guttural metal sound in your preferences, if you have some nostalgia for the genre or you’d like to hear musicians well in their 40s who have not given up to hardships, you cannot miss this record. To quote our colleague Sake again: "Metal to the throat!"

H. Nota: 9