Originally written by Tim Pigeon
Like a precision piece of clockwork, Poland’s finest export is back with another fine album. Vader have released new material every single year for the past seven years, and the quality never suffers. They are the definition of musical consistency, having gone strong for almost two decades, and only getting heavier with age, as was witnessed on last year’s crushing The Art of War EP. Any doubts about whether or not they could recover from the loss of Doc on the drums have certainly been put to rest.
The trademarked Vader sound is little changed on Impressions In Blood, although at this point in their career, anyone expecting a dramatic shift is a fool. Blast-laden, thrashing death metal is the only order of the day. Peter’s distinctive delivery has yet to suffer any sort of breakdown after many albums and heavy touring in the past year. His snarling, gruff but decipherable voice sounds as it always has. Daray’s drumming is fast and faster, with mechanical precision. For the audiophiles, the production here sounds exactly like the mix on The Art of War, so they no doubt recorded it the same way. It’s very crisp on the drums, with their usual sinister guitar tone.
“Hellelujah!!!” is the album’s single release, and that makes sense as the songwriting is a little more simplistic than the rest of the album, and the chorus is a demonic earworm. “Shadow Fear” works in a little more groove than I’m used to hearing from Vader. Slayer-esque, squealing solos accentuate an already intense song. Haunted keys add ambience to the plodding “Predator”, which provides a timely slowdown. I get a slight memory of Nile when the meandering solo kicks in amongst the relentlessly trudging main riff. “They Live!!!” harkens back to Litany with two minutes of ferocity.
Vader’s only drawback is what could also be called their strength – a consistency and dedication to their style of choice that is unwavering in the face of a progressing metal scene. (Or regressing, depending on who you ask.) While I would say that Vader is a must-have in any metalhead’s CD stack, I can’t really say that every album is a necessity. You can really just grab any Vader album at random and be assured of a solid album of pure death metal fury. If you’re new to Vader, then Impressions In Blood is a fine place to start, and for everyone else this will be an enjoyable slab of metal that’s sure to get the blood flowing.
