III: The Rommel Chronicles

Personnel: Martin van Drunen (vocals); Stephan Gebedi, Paul Baayens (guitar); Theo Van Eekelen (bass guitar); Ed Warby (drums).Audio Mixer: Dan Swanö.Recording information: Harrow Studios, Losser, The Netherlands; Sandlane Studios, Rien, The Netherlands; The Warbunker, Rotterdam, The Netherlands.Photographer: Erik Wijnands.While Hail of Bullets' focus on war has always given their brand of brutal, no-frills death metal a refreshing, thematic change of pace from their contemporaries, it always felt more like flavoring than an actual concept. On their third album, III: The Rommel Chronicles, the band focus the attention from the horrors of war as a general theme to the rise and fall of legendary German Field Marshall Erwin Rommel, tracking the career of the man known as the Desert Fox with an album that skirts the line between concept album and historical essay. While the album's destructive, riff-heavy sound comes as no surprise, what's most interesting here is the earnestness with whic