Hail Of Bullets
III: The Rommel Chronicles

Rommel managed to become a terror to the allied forces, as his extremely accurate and effective military tactics were a real pain in the ass to his opponents. His intelligence and dedication to Hitler were nominated and most people respected and feared him (be it friends or foes, the result was the same). On the other hand, you can’t praise a man who was responsible for taking so much lives, especially a nazi and fascist at first sight. But Rommel was a loyal man with principles despite his cruel and cold blooded personality, that’s what brought his final death when he started having doubts about Hitler’s motives and was finally forced to drink the cyanide each German officer carried in case of captivity. The topic suits the band more than great, as their material was made to support such concepts, that’s why this album sounds somehow more focused compared to the others.

With the beginning of ‘’Swoop Of The Falcon’’, we have the whole essence of Hail Of Bullets at once, heavy, crawling, threatening and doomy riffs, sounding like tanks marching on next to you. The whole band is in tremendous shape and vocalist Martin Van Drunen (surely the most recognizable death metal throat of Europe ever) spits every lyric convincingly to put you in the climate of that long gone but never forgotten cruel era. ‘’Pour Le Merite’’ violently changes the rhythm with its thrashing speed and outbursts and after that, the whole album balances between slow and mid-tempo passages to furious speeds which keep the interest of the listener and in the end, add one more great release to the likes of the band. ‘’DG-7’’ may become one of the most favourite tracks of the fans, it’s the longest of the album, but also the most complete, heavy and slow in the beginning, fast and furious to the middle and changing constantly on and on.

The next two tracks are shorter, with ‘’The Last Breath Of Man’’ keeping the tempos at high speed and ‘’DAK’’ following in the same vein, making the album sound fresh, but also being able to travel you back in time and bring pictures of the war in front of you. ‘’The Desert Fox’’ is one of the most slow tracks on the album, refering to the nickname given to Rommel for his amazing techniques during a battle and his maneuvres made during the battles. ‘’Tobruk’’ is also one of the best tracks of the album, a reference to the place where Rommel made a significant move and saved his men from certain death, while he was outnumbered and almost surrounded by the allies. ‘’Farewell To Africa’’ is the shortest track on the album, talking about Rommel’s departure from Africa and his return to the European front.

The last two tracks talk about his final hours, ‘’The Final Front’’ is long but fast and the closing track ‘’Death Of A Field Marshall’’ finds Van Drunen almost cursing for the unjust death Rommel had. Many believe that Rommel could have doublecrossed Hitler in the end, as he understood that the Fuhrer had gone insane and was against his actions. A man who survived an air raid injury, finally died alone and almost forgotten for his offer to the German forces. Like I said, we can’t praise a man responsible for the death of thousands, but he surely deserved a more glorious death. The third album of Hail Of Bullets is surely equal to its predecessor and maybe is the heaviest they’ve done so far. With all the team in shape, they have nothing to fear and the future belongs to them. Surely they are the biggest hope of Europe for a new death metal rise in the future. I’d like them to deal with the Normandy topic on the next albums, time shall tell.