Hail of Bullets - On Divine Winds
A couple years ago, when I first heard that Martin van Drunen (Pestilence, Asphyx) was assembling a Death Metal “supergroup” with members of Thanatos and Gorefest’s drummer Ed Warby, I knew that the result would be amazing. How could it not be? And so it was no surprise to me that Hail of Bullets’ debut album, 2008’s …of Frost and War, was an instant classic. Honestly, I expected nothing less. The next year, HoB released the super-limited edition EP, Warsaw Rising, which I’m sure was illegally downloaded quite heavily since Metal Blade couldn’t even be bothered to release it on CD at all here in the US, so apparently if you wanted one, fuck off. I sincerely do not understand such decisions, but I suppose that’s why Metal Blade is Metal Blade, and my small label, Cursed Productions, is not. But I digress. With On Divine Winds, Hail of Bullets has delivered an album somehow beyond even my high expectations. The riffs (holy HELL!), the drums, the vocals, the recording quality itself (mixed and mastered by Dan Swano!) - everything is so… perfect. Impossibly, it’s almost too perfect, perhaps lacking the wabi-sabi necessary for a 10 rating, I’m not sure. But don’t misunderstand, this is easily one of the top Death Metal albums of 2010 (along with Immolation’s astonishing Majesty and Decay!), and needs to be heard immediately. However, thanks once again to the seemingly insane decisions of Metal Blade USA, you’ll have to track down an import copy, since that’s the only way to get the bonus track, “Sugar Loaf Hill,” and an entire bonus DVD of the band’s live performance at Germany’s Summer Breeze Festival 2008. My friends, it is worth the effort.
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