Vader – Black to the Blind

Phew, another new album from this Polish Death Metal band that stubbornly continues with their old school Death.

First some minor points. Goddamn it, it barely lasts 29 minutes! They play 10 songs in this timeframe, it’s as if they want to approach the length of ‘Reign in Blood’ to release a classic that way. Furthermore, 10 tracks are listed on the back of the cover, but in the CD booklet there’s an 11th text for a song called ‘Anamnesis’. It must be a misprint.

Now for something positive, now listen and tremble! Vader still makes the oh-so-delicious brutal style as on all their previous releases. The songs have just become a bit shorter, but this isn’t disturbing because they provide enough variation. The vocals on some tracks resemble those of Jan-Chris de Koeijer of Gorefest on ‘Erase’. However, on this CD Peter also uses some regular vocal parts and they sound incredibly cool, Chris Barnes could learn something from this. I had already heard the song ‘Carnal’ live in Roermond, but because I didn’t know it yet, I thought it was a cover from their previous CD, which is full of covers. Really cool that combination of regular vocals and driving music and then those bursts of brutal vocals and speed eruptions. I also want to mention Doc, the drummer, people listen to how tight this man is, even live he can maintain this with the greatest ease. I have seen them live many times and they blow everything and everyone away. Something I also experienced live in Roermond, they fired guitarist China and replaced him with Mauser.

Goddamn it, I’m just leaving the repeat button on all week so I can endlessly dive through my room and bang my head a thousand times against the blood-smeared walls. Buy, buy and buy again!