Hail of Bullets-The Rommel chronicles

Published: Absolute Underground #55 December/January 2014

Hail of Bullets is a Dutch band that's only been around for a few years but has a few ex-members of Asphyx so that counts for something. They like to do the war theme with albums with the last one being about the rise and fall of world war two japan. Instead of picking a country this time they picked a person. They're putting out a new release about a german field marshall and tank commander named Erwin Rommel. If you know anything about war history it makes for a good story and it's done in the influence of old Obituary and a little Autopsy.
The first track made the logical start at Rommel's birth and early years included joining the military. "Pour le Merite" was the medal he was awarded during WW1 in France. #3 "DG-7" is a great song on a musical level slowing down for the second half and giving it an epic feeling that suits the subject matter well. The next two tracks are much faster paced to coincide with the frentic pace of Rommel's style of tank warfare in France. Relentless charging riffs making you think of Panzer divisions roaring across battlefields. "The desert fox" is about Rommel's transfer to lead the attack in North Africa where he recieved this nickname from the British press. I like the way the pace is the songs change to suit the subject matter in each song. It shows the pile of research the band must have put into writing this. This continues for the rest of the album through the move out of Africa in an attempt to hold the last fronts against the Allies. All Axis military pulling back into Germany as they were slowly defeated on each of their fronts. The last song "Death of a Field Marshall" is kind of a slow and somber song. It deals with Rommel's forced suicide after his plot to assassinate Hitler was uncovered. It was the end of the man and the end of this story and a perfect ending to this album.
I'm a little biased on this because I'm an avid reader of WWII history and this album told a great story. I usually listen to metal when I read history so this kind of fits. The changing pace and well written music pull you into the subject matter. I suggest playing the whole album while reading the wikipedia page on Erwin Rommel just to get the full effect of it. But then again if you don't like history and think everyone involved in the world wars was evil then you won't be into this one at all.


Michael F. Carnage

http://www.hailofbullets.com/