HAIL OF BULLETS

I remember Hail of Bullets' debut giving me a guilty pleasure of fairly basic euro-Death Metal. The lyrical themes centring on a specific period of war also gave it some interest. Somehow, on this their follow-up EP 'Warsaw Rising', a little of all that is lost. Nothing is new at this party; everything seems a tad too boring this time around. Not only that, but only three of the six tracks are new, with the remainder being live cuts. Live tracks have always seemed to me to be a cash-con for turning what would otherwise be a single into an EP, allowing the price to reflect this. The counter argument may have been that live tracks were a nice gift to those who couldn’t make it to shows. But, in this age of Youtube et al, you can see these things online for free. So what are we getting here? Three songs of fairly mid-paced Death Metal, and that’s just not nearly enough for eight pounds. Martin van Drunen is once again the focal point of all this, but even he cannot lift the mediocrity on offer. Hail of Bullets seem content to ape Bolt Thrower's nineties output and leave it at that. No further development of their own sound. And, considering how good the debut was, this is a major disappointment. Don't get me wrong, I kind of enjoyed listening to this; there's enough head banging fury going on. But, I probably won't listen to it again.

LABEL:

FORMAT:

Metal Blade Records

EP

WARSAW RISING

Review by Steve Cowan

RUNNING TIME:

28:35

RELEASE DATE:

17th July 2009

TRACK LISTING

1) Warsaw Rising
2) Liberators
3) Destroyer
4) Red Wolves of Stalin (Live)
5) Nachthexen (Live)
6) The Crucial Offensive (Live)

COUNTRY OF ORIGIN:

Netherlands

"...considering how good the debut was, this is a major disappointment."