Hail Of Bullets reviewed
Hail Of Bullets
. . . Of Frost & War
(Metal Blade)
We’re more than a little embarrassed to admit if it came down to some sort of life-or-death quiz, we’d probably know more about the Ben Affleck/Josh Hartnett/Kate Beckinsale love triangle in Pearl Harbor than the actual events of Pearl Harbor and World War II. That changed recently, though, and we credit Nederland death metal.
Hail Of Bullets offer in-depth knowledge of the Germans’ attempt to seize Leningrad (“The Lake Ladoga Massacre”), the Soviets’ missile-dropping “aviatrixes” (“Nachthexen”), and the brutal goddamn Eastern Europe winter (“General Winter”) on . . . Of Frost And War. Musically, there’s very little to criticize about a band that includes drummer Ed Warby of Gorefest, guitarists Paul Baayens and Stephan Gebédi, both of Thanatos, and frontman Martin van Drunen of Pestilence and Bolt Thrower fame. Like the hard-charging, line-busting tanks in “The Crucial Offensive,” HOB offer very few frills (only a handful of guitar solos, even) but are more than willing to simply run your ass over. Frost is the textbook junior-high teachers should hand out, because we sure don’t remember Mr. Nillus telling telling us about cannibalistic soldiers “eating their comrades’ entrails” (“Stalingrad”) or the popsicorpses of the Carpathian Mountains (“wheels crush splintered bones/frozen death is painless/on this god-forgotten road”).
Learning is fun. Thanks Hail Of Bullets!
— Trevor Fisher
Click here to download Hail Of Bullets’ “Ordered Eastward.”
