Hail of Bullets - On Divine Winds (2010)

With all the crap Death Metal these days, it’s nice to finally hear a band with real balls and real music. Hail of Bullets comes from the Netherlands with a very impressive line-up that includes Martin van Drunen (Asphyx, ex-Pestilence) on vocals, legendary drummer Ed Warby (Gorefest, 11th hour, Ayreon, Star One), and Paul Baayens and Stephan Gebedi on guitars (both from Thanatos).

With such an impressive line-up we get a very aggressive and dynamic sounding Death Metal that will please all fans with a brilliant mixture of North American and European Death Metal from the 90’s. With clear influences of Asphyx, old Pestilence, Bolt Thrower, just to name a few, the band has a very impressive and crushing sound that many kiddies these days would only dream of.

Blasting listeners away with an epic introduction with “The Eve of Battle”, the band quickly starts their WWII-inspired onslaught that blows up with “Operation Z”. Martin shows not many signs of aging and his vocals are superb in this track and the album in general, the raspy style is what sets him apart from most of the growlers of his time (and on Death Metal). Taking advantage of a superb production “On Divine Winds” sounds like we wish many of our favorite records from back in the day sounded, everything is massive and crystal clear, allowing every little element to shine magically.

The riffing on tracks like “The Mukden Incident” is just majestic and showcases the energy around this band. In general, the guitar work of Baayens and Gebedi is top notch, crafting tons of catchy and powerful riffs and the typical solos. The atmosphere created by the guitar work in songs like “Unsung Heroes” and “Full Scale War” give that evil and crushing feeling to the music that Death Metal use to have back in the day.

As you can expect from Ed Warby, the drumming is intense and massive. Hail of Bullets is greatly benefited by having such an experienced drummer behind them that knows when to accelerate and when to stay back and let the others do their job, never allowing the music to be saturated by pointless fills and ‘fancy things’. The bass guitar is pretty standard and while you can hear it pounding away in most tracks, sometimes it gets a bit blurred by the mix.

In general, “On Divine Winds” is an album that you can expect from a superstar band. There isn’t a single song in it that might be considered weak and this is why we love it. If you like Death Metal then this is one of the few albums worth purchasing in 2010.

Release: October 11th, 2010

Country: Netherlands