Vader – The Empire

[nyrating]

2nd November 2016 Reinier de Vries Album Reviews 0

For a Dutchman the band name Vader is a strange and almost religious sounding one. It is the Dutch word for father, dad and in prayers we use Vader for Lord. I don’t think this was the intention when these Polish picked it. Going through their repertoire and lyrics they are surely no saints, more the opposite. Three months before this full length, Vader already released the EP ‘Iron Times’ of which 2 songs “Prayer To the God of War” and “Parabellum” can be found back here again. This EP already gave a good look ahead on what to expect from ‘The Empire’.

This is the second album in a row with the same line-up and you hear that the band around founding member Piotr “Peter”Wiwczarek” are professionals to the bone. Fortunately there are no big style changes, most of the tracks balance between fast thrash and death metal again. Perhaps they just added a bit more melody and even traditional heavy metal influences to their music, but that just makes it more interesting. “Send Me Back to Hell” for example is just old school heavy metal with an aggressive singer. Opener “Angels of Steel” has some great riffing and does make me think a bit of the band Legion of the Damned. With “Tempest” the brutal and aggressive style I like is back and Peter growls and grunts like in his early days. The thrash song “Prayer To the God of War” we already know from the EP and is followed by the “packed full with old school heavy influences” song “Iron Reign”. With “No Gravity”, “Genocidius” and “The Army Geddon” death metal rules and some very fast parts and good melodic guitar solos finish it off. Heavy, speed, melody and brutallity go hand in hand in “Feel My Pain” and is followed by the speed/thrash song “Parabellum”.

This new Vader album is a perfect mix of death and thrash with a big wink at traditional metal. No fan will be disappointed and the mix of brutal blasts, heavy riffs, aggression and good songwriting does make this one of their better albums to date.

Tracklist:

01. Angels Of Steel
02. Tempest
03. Prayer To the God of War
04. Iron Reign
05. No Gravity
06. Genocidius
07. The Army Geddon
08. Feel My Pain
09. Parabellum
10. Send Me Back to Hell

Playing time: 33:00

Release date: 4 November 2016

Label: Nuclear Blast Records

Website: www.facebook.com/vader

About Reinier de Vries 188 Articles

Once a metal head, always a metalhead. My parents thought it would only be a period, but they were wrong. I quit to explain the beauty of metal music to others that are not into metal, because it is something you can't tell in words... It is like explaining to a teetotaller why a cold beer is so nice on a hot day... I started with bands like Accept, Metal Church, Iron Maiden and Metallica in the eighties and I think I will still listen to them when I'm stone deaf and old...