Originally written by Ben Graves.
This six-song EP entitled The Art Of War is my first exposure to the legendary Vader. I’m not entirely sure why it’s taken me so long to check them out, especially since I’m familiar with the other two Polish death metal juggernauts – Decapitated and Behemoth – and enjoy both bands a great deal. For some reason, Vader always managed to slip beneath my “vadar”. Needless to say, I was completely unprepared and overrun by the onslaught of metal found on The Art Of War. My initial reaction was that of shell-shocked, mumbled disbelief. My initial intelligible reaction was that this was easily one of the heaviest-hitting releases I’d heard all year long, despite the fact that it’s not even a full-length CD.
The short, atmospheric opener “Para Bellum” slowly builds in tension and volume and eventually gives way to the precise, crisp snare hits of “This Is The War”. The flurry of kick at thirty-nine seconds in signifies the point of no return. Speaking as a drummer, the blasts in this song and the four others to follow were enough to make me hang my head in shame and contemplate throwing out the sticks for good. Drummer Daray is phenomenal behind the kit, always rock-solid in his timing, perfectly controlled, and devastatingly powerful with his hits. The guitars are also worthy of mention, as they succeed not only in being unapologetically heavy, as is required for death metal, but also surprisingly catchy. I found that more than a few riffs were steadily replaying themselves in my head after only two or three listens. This is something I thought was lacking in Behemoth’s Demigod earlier this year; without a doubt, it was an incredible album, but there wasn’t an over-abundance of instantly memorable riffage. Behemoth does take the win for leadwork, however.
Complimenting the music of The Art Of War is a top-rate production job. The sound is thick, cutting, and clear, creating a wall of noise effect that strikes a perfect balance between overwhelming heaviness and listenability. It would seem as though Vader is one of the recent slew of death metal bands who seem to have realized that their chosen genre doesn’t require a muddy, cheap-sounding production, and The Art Of War is all the better for it.
Someone should kick me for taking so long to listen to such an influential band. I don’t usually give much thought to EP’s, but The Art Of War fully deserves any and all of the attention that it gets. If it was a full-length, I have little doubt that it’d be up there in my top five at the end of the year.
