…Of Frost and War is exactly what I hoped it would be. It’s almost an hour of old-school death metal in the vein of Bolt Thrower, Dismember, Celtic Frost and Death. There’s nothing trendy about the music. It’s all very cliché, but it’s grim and simplistic death metal done the old way and I love it. …Of Frost and War is a free-form concept album about the German - Soviet war in 1941-1945. It’s about the German Operation Barbarossa and the Soviet offensive after Stalingrad. To give the feeling of war there’s a few samples of tanks, artillery and air sirens. Together with the gloomy Sunlight Studio-like production it gives the music a cold and barbaric feel.

The song-writing is superior. Hail Of Bullets knows how to create tight and versatile death metal. The songs are full of dirty grooving, heavy middle-parts, slow grinding and up-tempo drumming. All added some sombre lead work. To top things off there’s some disturbing solo work throughout …Of Frost and War. Most of the riffs are simple, but efficient. It’s not any band who can get away with repeating the riffs this much without the music getting boring, but Hail Of Bullets can. In songs like "Nachthexen", "Inferno at the Carpathian Mountains" and "Berlin" the music is almost epic at times. Martin van Drunen’s raspy vocals go well together with the music. His abrasive growls add a lot to the feel of the music. You can almost visualize the grinding terror of the war.

I can’t find anything to complain about on this effort. There are no weak songs nor any fillers . …Of Frost and War are by far the best death metal debut of 2008 and possibly the best album of the year. Fans of Death, Bolt Thrower, Pestilence, Obituary and Autopsy are advised to check this out …Of Frost and War is old-school death metal at its finest.