VaderThere are very few things in life that are truly certain, the sun will rise, bacon tastes awesome, everyone dies, and a new Vader album will kick serious ass.

In my household Vader are simply known as old faithful, with every album it’s like taking the first bite of a ham and cheese sandwich, you have had it a thousand times before, there is nothing new or exotic about it, but it’s a safe bet because you can’t beat a classic formula, and it always delivers exactly what you want from it.

This album is essentially no different. After a trademark little symphonic intro, they come straight at you with some chunky stabs, a little drum fill and then down to the blasting and old school riffage that all Vader fans know and love.

And to be honest there is little else you should be aware of musically for the most part, this is Vader doing what they do best and fans will know exactly what to expect. But that said there is a slightly different vibe to the whole affair than in recent albums.

It is still unmistakably Vader, but there is a constant pulse of influence from Slayer’s Reign In Blood under the surface of this album, making this one the most thrashy offerings in Vader’s extensive back catalogue, and in a strange way the most commercial sounding also.

The production is also a notable step up from recent offerings, everything here is incredibly crisp and clear, I would almost say polished, and everything musically is delivered with the sort of surgical precision that can only be achieved by honing your craft for as long as Vader have, and that makes overall for a more accessible sounding Vader album than previous offerings (although personally I would have preferred it a little more raw sounding than it is, to capture some of the bands live ferocity).

The tracks on offer here are all pure gold and I would love to hear any of them included into their live set. The album is brilliantly paced throughout, putting in their little orchestral pieces just where they need them, and the order of the tracks make for a great balance to the album.

Although at first I really didn’t like the final track “The end”, it has a lot of half baked spoken word stuff in it and my first impression of it was that it sounded like Rotting Christ playing a satanic power ballad, but after a few listens to the entire album it has grown on me and is a fitting track to end the album (although still definitely my least favourite track on offer here by a long way).

On the other end of the spectrum though, the track “The Eye of the Abyss” is an easy contender for the best Vader song I have ever heard, it showcases the band balancing their trademark riffing against an orchestral piece with a level of consideration I have not heard from them before, it creates a truly epic atmosphere to the song and it is something I would like to hear more of from them in the future.

But overall, this is Vader doing exactly what fans want them to do, delivering unapologetic, old school death metal with surgical precision.

Definitely a stronger offering than the last couple of albums for me, and proof (as if you ever needed it) that whilst many of Poland’s finest death metal practitioners may rise up to extreme metal superstardom, only to come back down again, Vader have always remained true to their fans, and have seated themselves firmly on the throne as the kings of Polish death metal, and they will continue to sit on it without contest for many years to come as long as they keep delivering fan pleasing, high quality death metal such as this.

( 9/10 Mark Gleed)

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