Tuesday, December 3, 2024

HAIL OF BULLETS - Self Titled EP reissue review


 

HAIL OF BULLETS - Self Titled EP reissue

Agonia Records


I guess you'll have to file this one under "For Fans Only" of which I am. For those of you who don't know then I'll explain. HAIL OF BULLETS was basically a side project of ASPHYX which started out in 2006. While ASPHYX was death metal / death doom with various lyrical subject matter. HAIL OF BULLETS was similar in sound but lyrically all about historical World War Two subject matter. 


Now being a huge ASPHYX fan years ago I was instantly drawn to liking HAIL OF BULLETS. Their line-up consisted of Martin van Drunen (ASPHYX) on vocals, Paul Baayens (ASPHYX and THANATOS) on guitar, Stephan Gebedi (THANATOS) on guitar, Theo van Eekelen (from HOUWISTER) on bass and finally Ed Warby (formerly of GOREFEST) on drums. Yeah they're a Dutch Extreme Metal supergroup to say the least. 


Their first two albums; Of Frost and War from 2008 and On Divine Winds from 2010, are fuckin amazing. Also toss in their 2009 EP Warsaw Rising for good measure. Now I will say their final album, 2013's III: The Rommel Chronicles, is decent but I hardly listen to it anymore. Now as far as I know the band is in limbo or are no more. 


Be that as it may this EP here is their 2007 four song demo which was never officially released. Actually it was a self-release which the band burned CD-R copies of and gave away to people. Sorry I never got a copy back then. Anyways for fans and completists Agonia Records has given it some respect with cool artwork and you can get it on vinyl.


Now some naysayers out there will say "well all four of these songs are on their first album Of Frost and War so what's the point?" OK that's correct but hey if you're a fan then maybe you want this on vinyl or maybe you just wanna blast these four songs until your head explodes. Which ever comes first I don't care. To me it's just cool to hear these songs again on a different format.

 


https://www.agoniarecords.com/

LISTEN HERE:

https://agoniarecords.bandcamp.com/album/hail-of-bullets


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