The Beast

Well, it's time for another Vader album, it's solid, entertaining, and well produced, as they always are with Vader. There's some really cool songs such as "The Sea Came In At Last" with an awesome atmosphere behind it, interesting start/stops, and some well done clean vocals(as per mandatory every Vader album has to have a track where Peter laughs, this is the one for this album,). There are cool riffs, change-ups, and bridges throughout the album as there always are on Vader albums, but at the same time during certain parts, the way they were building up sections, I kept thinking they were going to bust into a riff or drum pattern from a previous release (namely Litany/Revelations/Blood) but didn't exactly, it was the same type of feel but a different chord/change-up(good or bad depending upon how you look at it). Though, I found this occured mainly on the first two tracks "Out of the Deep" and "Dark Transmission", which are good tracks. The rest just felt like fast, death/thrash Vader, but nothing that they had exactly done before. The solos are rocking and awesome but never go over the edge. They also have an instrumental, ambient intro for track 1(boo), but it does help build up for the first track, so I'll let it slide though they should have just made it a part of the song rather than a seperate track. I also wish the drums stood out a bit more and performed some more crazy fills or patterns, there are a couple parts that they do this on the album but I wish it happened more, they are very well done though. This is a solid, entertaining album, as Vader has come to be known to deliver, doing what they've always done. They entered a bit of new territory with more attention to atmosphere, soft intro on the last track, "Choices", and bit more of the clean vocals, but not enough to alienate or destroy the sound they have developed. I don't think this will be my favorite Vader album, but if you've enjoyed their past releases, as I have, then this one will fulfill your need for new, enjoyable, entertaining material from Vader. In relation to ratings for the other Vader albums I own: De Profundis - 97%; Litany - 97%; Blood/R.F.W. - 91%; Revelations - 90%