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I was a big fan of Hail of Bullets' debut full-length last year so was more than happy to pick this up for reviewing, even if it is one of those stop gap EPs with only a couple of new songs. The rest of the material is made up of a Twisted Sister cover(!), and three live tracks, all recorded at Party San Open Air festival.

The new tracks are of a fair quality without being mindblowingly out of this world, with the slower title track being slightly better than the opening gambit's faster, more brutal attacking pace. The same gnarly slime covered chainsaw guitar tones are still present, as well as the same visceral war themes that made Of Frost and War… such a ripping album. Of course, the band still contains one of my favorite Death Metal vocalists ever blasting his infected throat throughout every track, with Martin Van Drunen being one of the only people that could give John Tardy a run for his money in the ‘world's most tortured tonsils' competition. The Twisted Sister cover track thankfully doesn't come off quite as badly as one of those Six Feet Under butchered abominations, sounding totally bastardized into a steaming, shrapnel blasted unrecognizable chunk of musical meat that you wouldn't guess was a Twisted Sister song in a million years.

The remaining three live tracks are recorded perfectly, but as I'm not exactly a lover of live albums they don't exactly do much for me, especially as I have the same songs in their original, better forms on the studio debut. Anyhow, as all these stop gap albums are aimed to keep a band in the public eye (usually whilst touring before writing and recording their next studio release), it fills it purpose in that sense, giving the fans a taste of things to come. Whilst it's certainly not essential, it's an enjoyable enough addition to a discography that I for one hope to witness grow bigger and better in the coming years.