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Vader

Welcome To The Morbid Reich

Written by: MST on 10/08/2011 22:33:08

In 1990, the Polish death metal band Vader released their third demo, entitled "Morbid Reich". Spearheading the Polish death metal scene, the band continuously released solid death metal albums, and despite losing band members through the years guitarist and vocalist (and only current member from before 2008) Piotr "Peter" Wiwczarek never gave up. Now, 21 years and 9 full-length releases later, Vader have become a death metal institution, and to celebrate the band's 21st anniversary, their 10th full-length release is titled "Welcome To The Morbid Reich".

If you're familiar with Vader's (recent) material, you know what to expect: drums ranging from mid-tempo to vigorously blasting, those riffs that sound so deliciously Polish (2009's "Necropolis" even had Decapitated's Vogg on rhythm guitar), short solos scattered across the whole album and Peter's completely unique vocals; I would describe them as dark, raspy clean vocal yells, but I think any Vader fan would agree with me when I say that Peter's vocals are completely unique and almost impossible to describe. So what has changed on this new album? Thankfully, very little. Vader are the kind of band that are likely to ruin everything if they alter their sound too much. The only difference that jumps at me is the addition of screams layered on top of Peter's regular vocals, used to great effect in songs like "I Had A Dream...". Admittedly, I've never really given Vader's old material more than one or two spins so I didn't realize that the vocals on the "Necrolust" demo from 1989 sounded a lot like black metal screams until I read that track number 10 on this album, "Decapitated Saints", is a re-recording of a song featured on that demo and in a re-recorded version with growls on the band's debut album.

After a short intro that continues into opener "Welcome To The Morbid Reich", all hell breaks loose the way you expect Vader to do it; blasting drums, a dark, yet melodic riff and Peter opening the album with a nice long yell. The song then slows down to make room for more melody and a bunch of delicious solos. The album continues like that all the way through, having room for melody and solos while still making sure there's enough blasting to ensure everyone that this is still a Vader album. There are short straight-to-the-point songs like "Only Hell Knows" and "Lord Of Thorns" that are mostly about speed, varying songs like "The Black Eye" and "Come And See My Sacrifice" that make room for plenty of melody and solos, and even some slower songs like album closer "Black Velvet And Skulls Of Steels" that make the lyrics stand out and make way for some serious headbanging.

After enough listens I'm having trouble finding songs that are considerably weaker than the others. As mentioned above, Vader don't really do anything new on "Welcome To The Morbid Reich", and thank Jebus for that. It is bands like Vader, bands that consistently release quality records that make music worth waiting for, because even though you more or less know what you're going to get, you never get tired of it - and you cannot wait to get more.

Download: Only Hell Knows, I Am Who Feasts Upon Your Soul, I Had A Dream...
For The Fans Of: Kataklysm, Krisiun, Vomitory, Decapitated
Listen: Myspace

Release date 12.08.2011
Nuclear Blast Records