HAIL OF BULLETS, AFFECTED DISARRAY, INSIDIOUS AND SORROWFALL
THE PURPLE TURTLE, CAMDEN – 18/10/08
Arriving at Camden around an hour before the scheduled opening time of yet another bill of underground metal put together by Red Raven Promotions, we decamped to the pub across the road to continue the session we had started earlier that afternoon in the Crobar. It seems we were not the only ones who fancied a pre-show beer as two members of headline band Hail of Bullets also ventured over the road and we quickly discovered that things were running a little late. As a result we promptly lost track of time and made our way over to the venue to find Belfast band Sorrowfall already on stage and considerably closer to the end of their set than the beginning. From the three songs that we managed to catch they displayed a more than competent level of musicianship, indeed at times the twin guitar attack was very reminiscent of Irish legends Thin Lizzy. Whether this sits well within the context of the band dynamic is debatable and left more than a few members of the audience wondering whether their best option was to expand upon such passages for a more classic rock sound or drop them all together in favour of the blackened death metal more in keeping with the vocal delivery.
Arriving at a venue without prior knowledge of the support bands is in my opinion a blessing which allows you to immediately put them to the ultimate test of entertaining you in a live environment and, let’s face it, live music is where it’s at. Taking this approach means that you are always surprised by what you see and hear (although not always in a good way, it has to be said). Next up were Insidious, a quartet who surprised me before they had even struck a note. When the vocalist introduced the band I instantly knew they were from my home city of Nottingham. By the end of their set I was left to wonder how it was that I had never heard of them let alone seen them live before. They describe themselves as technical death metal with industrial components. All of these bases were certainly covered to a decent degree in a set played with competence and enthusiasm. I am guessing that the majority of the set was culled from their CD ‘Digital Disdain’ and they showed me enough to watch out for them in the future which was more than could be said for the next band up.
Infected Disarray are the type of band that make you wonder if they want to sound the way they do or are merely limited by their ability as musicians. In truth, the music is of the kind that any metal fan can bang their head to in a club after they have partaken of a few alcoholic beverages but the vocals are another matter entirely. They could in all probability be reproduced by a piglet having its testicles removed with a pair of pliers and as such render the lyrics utterly meaningless.
Finally it was time for Dutch death metal supergroup Hail Of Bullets to make their long awaited UK debut. Comprised of members or ex-members of Pestilence, Asphyx, Thanatos, Gorefest and Houwitser, in Martin Van Drunen they have one of the best and most distinctive voices in death metal. The guy can do it all – scream, grunt, growl and sing clean as fast or as slow as you like with clarity that most would envy. The level of expectation was high with such legendary musicians involved and a stunning debut album about the Nazi invasion of Russia (Operation Barbarossa) behind them.
They took their stage positions in semi darkness as the 2 minute intro to their ‘…..Of Frost and War’ debut plays. This just adds to the anticipation and as the squeal of tank tracks can be heard through the PA we await the blistering attack of ‘Ordered Eastward’ but the boys throw a curve ball and start with slower but much heavier ‘General Winter’ instead. Taking a split second to overcome this shock the crowd soon begins to headbang with a fury that the music commands. It is particularly pleasing to see so many young heads moving to such an old school sound.
Van Drunen grins his way through the set in a way that belies the frenzy and brutality of both the music and subject matter but it is obvious he is enjoying himself again after becoming disillusioned about 10 years ago. This is old school death metal played with absolute precision. By the time they get to ‘The Crucial Offensive’ the screeching guitars of Thanatos axe duo Stephan Gebedi and Paul Baayens actually begin to resemble the death wail of Stuka dive bombers swooping to deliver their deadly load on Soviet positions. Ed Warby, surely one of the best and most underrated death metal drummers, pounds his kit almost to the point of oblivion sounding like a one man artillery barrage in the process.
However, the show was not without its technical glitches, Gebedi twice having to correct minor niggles with his rented amp and Van Drunen at one point conversing with the monitor guy in Dutch presumably unhappy with his sound. The only problem of a non-technical nature was the order in which the tracks were played from what is essentially a chronological concept album. As a result, one minute ‘Berlin’ was being razed to the ground by the triumphant Red Army and the next we were transported back 4 years as the Wehrmacht were ‘Ordered Eastward’ in 1941.
Minor problems aside, the Hail of Bullets set was a triumph for all concerned; the fans, who were royally entertained, Red Raven who added yet another overseas band to a rapidly expanding list of successful promotions and not least for Hail of Bullets themselves who managed to condense 4 years and 40 million deaths of the bloodiest conflict in history into a 60 minute set, did it justice, and at times made you believe that you were actually there.
Rich Lawson
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