The Beast

Compared to earlier releases like “Litany”, this offering from Poland’s Vader reveals a thrashier side of the group that resembles the raw sounding vibe of groups like Kreator, while retaining crucial elements of their death edged material.

Vader manages to pull off a great deal of technical deviations in their music, which makes for some interesting listening. “Dark Transmission” is particularly of note from a compositional standpoint. Here, the band reins in the odd time signatures and abrupt accents for a straight ahead, mid tempo thrash sound that is much more commercially accessible than the group’s previous output. The result is a gruff, thrashing metal attack sure to get heads banging in live situations.

‘Firebringer’ takes on a more upbeat nature ala “Beneath The Remains” era Sepultura and features a trio of excellent leads that are a dead on fit for the aggressive theme of the music. ‘Stranger In The Mirror’ is another blistering, fast paced affair that is driven by an extremely moshable riff. The production on this record is tight, with plenty of compression on the kick drums, making for some savage double bass rolls and rhythms.

Above all, the most improved attribute of this group is their ability to keep these songs moving forward, they have developed a good sense of balance between maintaining a deep, blackened groove whilst keeping enough different changes to keep things interesting. As one of the giants of European death metal, Vader have proven here that they are still quite masterful at creating extreme music.

Although this is certainly not the defining album of their career, it is a solid effort nonetheless and certainly worthy of the attention of fans of the group’s previous recordings.