VADER:

• Necrolust (1989, Demo) A chance to hear some great songs from "Incantation" when they were still just demo songs. The riffs are great, the sound quality is poor, but that's to be expected.
• Morbid Reich (1990, Demo) Same deal as "Necrolust", except the sound quality is much better.
• The Ultimate Incantation (1992) Nothing terribly new here, but they have just the right elements to bring a smile to my face every time I hear their music. Brutally fast guitars, ultra fast and accurate drumming, slayer-esque solos (with lots of whammy bar dives). Very tight production and musicianship.
• The Darkest Age - Live '93 (1994, Live) A poorly recorded live album. Really only a must have if you're a Vader completist.
• Sothis (1994, EP) A short EP with 3 songs, 3 intros and a Black Sabbath cover. The CD is worth buying just to get a copy of the song "Sothis", which is probably one of Vader's best songs ever. The double kicks will drive you insane.
• De Profundis (1995) Although the guitar sound is still a little weak, the drumming is still insane, and the band's songwriting skills go up a notch. Your collection really isn't complete without it, so buy this CD if you haven't already.
• Future Of The Past (1996) A CD of cover songs from famous metal bands.
• Reborn In Chaos (1997) Necrolust and Morbid Reich remastered and put onto one CD.
• Black To The Blind (1997) Nothing innovative on this album, just Vader doing what they do best. Fast doubles and blastbeats, good riffs, lots of tremolo picking. The production really isn't all that great (they really need some more low end), but overall this album will certainly keep fans happy.
• Kingdom (1998, EP) A short EP with 3 new songs, a remake of 'Breath of Centuries', and 2 remixes. The remixes suck, but the three new songs kick some serious ass in the standard Vader style. Good songs, good production, no surprises, a good addition to your collection.
• Vision And Voice (1998, Video) A really excellent quality video. 13 songs (pretty much the same set as their Live In Japan album), great performance done to studio quality standards (they may have added overdubs, or else they just had a really good sound man at the live show), I'd even go as far to say the sound may be better than their live album. The video quality is excellent, with multiple cameras and great choreography, imagine the highest quality live show videotaping, except instead of a big name band it's Vader. The only complaint is this video is only available from Metal Mind productions in Poland in PAL format. Dudes, NTSC? We love Vader in the States as well ya know. A must have for Vader fans.
• Live In Japan (1999, Live) 18 live songs from the Polish masters of death. The performance is inspired, and they play lots of great music from many of their albums. The band isn't as tight as on their albums (except for Doc on drums, who's every kick is like a chisel to your gut), but that doesn't detract from the songs. Production wise, it's pretty decent, maybe a little bit muddy at times (but only slightly). I think a few more hours in the mixing stage might have smoothed out the production a tiny bit more, but you can still hear everything, and it's definitely better than their last live album.
• Litany (2000) Best album since De Profundis. First, the songs are really great, a good variety of tempos, interludes and feels, the songs sound like actual songs, and each one is memorable for it's own reasons (as opposed to the entire album just sorta melding together due to lack of variety). Second, excellent production, with lots of bottom end, and lots of clarity. Probably the best production Vader's has had yet. The drumming is the usual vader stuff, the blast beats and double kicks are inhuman, although, yes, I'm saying it, the kick drum might actually be too loud in the mix. Sounds like Doc is triggering heavily on this album, which makes it sound a little mechanical, but, ah well, it's fucking brutal. The whole album is fucking brutal. Definitely the best thing I've heard this year so far, all vader fans should drop what their doing and get this album immediately, or order the Japanese edition, that has two bonus tracks, one intro, and a new song that's as good as the other stuff on the album. Impressive.
• Reign Forever World (2001, EP) A few new tracks, a few covers, a few live tracks, and a few tracks that are bonus tracks on the Japanese version of Litany. All are decent stuff, the new tracks are cool, and the live tracks are well produced. But the number one thing this music does for me is gets me stoked about hearing a brand new Vader album, maybe later this year or early next year.
• Revelations (2002) While their last album was amazing, this album falls a little short of Vader's high standards. There's still some good songs and some good riffs (although overall the songs tend to be slower than usual vader fare), but overall the album remains a bit dull, no songs standout or remain terribly memorable, and overall it lacks originality and variety. Otherwise the same style you'd expect from the band. A decent release if it were some other band, but this is a vader cd, and so I know they can do better. On a positive note the album ends with three bonus tracks from the "Reign Forever World" miniCD, if only the rest of the cd was as good as these three tracks.
• More Vision And Voice (2002, DVD) DVD edition of their Vision And Voice Tape. First, to note, the transfer of this DVD is horrible, there's tons of mpeg artifacting everywhere, turning a lot of the concert into a blocky mess. If you have the original tape, you'll probably want to hold onto that, since it's much higher quality. The DVD contains some extras, 8 songs recorded from 2001, it's a bootleg, but a decent bootleg. Also, there's an interview with Peter (founder of the band, vocalist and guitar player) discussing many issues, all in Polish but with english subtitles.
  
• Blood (2003, EP) While Vader seems to be on the "Every second CD" cycle (ie, every second CD is good), their EPs have always been top notch, and this is no exception. We start off with 2 new tracks from 2003, both of which are good Vader material in the usual style. Then 4 new tracks from 2002 (slightly more reverb on the production, actually, think I prefer the sound on these two a bit), these may be bonus tracks to the Revelations sessions. All good songs, better than the songs that made it onto Revelations in fact. Then a Thin Lizzy Cover, which is fun to listen to, always like cover songs that are plenty different from the original. Then a cover of Morbid Angel's 'Immortal Rites', which isn't all that different from the original, but is still well done. Highly recommended as usual.
• The Beast (2004) I was hoping that Vader was indeed on a "every second album is good" cycle, since that would make this one of their good albums. Unfortunately, that does not seem to be the case. From the opening track the band just seems to have lost something. The songs seem to only be made from 3-4 riffs repeated again and again, and each riff is pretty straight forward, with lots of held notes tremolo picked. The album is also for the most part mid paced, and even when the riffs are fast, it just doesn't seem to have much energy to it. Their first "single" 'Dark Transmission' is a good example of what most of this album is about, sort of slow, and the lyrics: "Dark Trans mission, trance dark mission" I think that's supposed to sound more intellectual than it actually is. There is one brief bit of light with Track 7, "The Zone" which is a great song, midpaced triplets chugging away, and the acoustic intro to 'Choices' is pretty good to. This is the first cd without Doc on drums, but I'm not sure I can really say if this guy is an ok replacement since the material he was given doesn't sound all that hot. Disappointed to say the least.
• Night of the Apocalypse (2005) This DVD would be good except for 3 fundamental problems. First the camerawork is way, way too jumpy. It switches between cameras on average about 1 to 2 times per second, which gives you a headache after awhile (not to mention makes it impossible to really see any of the performance). The camera folk also love shaking the camera, "Look, look, I'm shaking the camera around, wow, it's like you're banging your head to the music, except you're not, you're just watching it on TV, but it doesn't matter, even if you don't want to bang your head we're gonna bang your head for you, so deal with it!!! Look, I know where the zoom is too, lets zoom in and out quickly! Aren't I cool?" Ahem. Second, the sound is way too far away. It sounds like the band is playing in the opposite end of a big cave, way too much reverb. I mean, I'm ok with the idea of adding a little dimension to Vader's sound, beef up the bass a bit, even some reverb to give it that live feel, but this is just way too much, I mean, I can't even hear the double bass it's so far away. And third, this concert was recorded right after their "Revelations" album, and I didn't particularly like that album, so a lot of the songs I'm just not into (although they do play a few old classics such as 'Sothis', 'Silent Empire' and 'Breath Of Centuries' which are good). If the DVD has any advantages at all it's that you get to see Doc on drums one last time before he left the band, but the camerawork is so jumpy, do we really get to see him? As well as the 60 min main show, there are two far shorter bonus shows on the DVD, the second one is exactly like the first, the third show is from 2004, has Daray on drums, but the camerawork isn't as frantic and the production, while still far away, is clearer, you can hear the drums now for one. Anyways, afraid I can't recommend this DVD really, pick up their "Vision And Voice" one instead.
• The Art Of War (2005) Once again, EPs from Vader are just top notch. "The Art Of War" is back to the Vader we all know and love, a perfect mixture of speed and brutality, not that boring stuff from "The Beast". After a keyboard intro, the band bursts forth with a powerful military style drumbeat, followed by a barrage of crazy doublekicks, blasts and tremolo picking. The rest of the EP consists of a few more intros, and a bunch of new songs that are just as killer as the first. Now that the songs are back to normal, I can honestly say the new drummer Daray is a fine addition to the group. No one will ever truly be able to replace Doc, but Daray does a great job living up to his predecessor. RIP Doc, you will be missed, but I'm pleased to see Vader will be able to honor your memory by continuing to produce excellent music in the future. Now guys, lets just make sure the next full length album sounds like this material.
• Impressions in Red (2006) Ok, we're back to the good stuff. After tons of band turmoil what with Doc's death and the addition of a new drummer, the group has finally pulled everything back together, released a kickass EP, and now released their best album since "Litany". Plenty of blasting, some really nice riffs. I especially like 'God is Dead', which has a really memorable chorus (I can imagine this song will go over really well live). Another favorite is the song 'Predator', which has some speedy doublebass underneath a nice slow verse riff. The band has also added a few symphonic elements to their sound. I don't mean super keyboardy type stuff, but orchestral elements for intros and used sparingly inside the songs themselves, and they work really well. While not the most classic of Vader albums, this is definite return to form for the group, miles ahead of their last 2 full length releases, and fans should grab this one as soon as they can.
• ...And Blood Was Shed In Warsaw (2007, DVD) 3rd DVD for the band. It's a decently shot concert with really bad sound. I just don't know how this sorta thing can happen. The sound is really echoey and undefined, you can hear the guitars playing, but can't easily pick out an particular note. It's like a swarm of bees with no pitch. You also can't hear the double bass at all. Mind you, maybe that makes sense, because the camera guys also never show you the doublebass, for that matter, they basically never show the drummer, they have one camera from way above, but you never see his face or any closeups of what he's doing. Otherwise, the camerawork is great, it doesn't switch too fast, and the film quality is excellent. The band plays all their hits, lots of stuff from every album (20 songs in all), including 'Sothis', "Silent Empire, 'Wings', 'Dark Age' and a number of songs off their newest album. As an added bonus, all the songs seem to be a but faster than their album counterparts. Despite the good camerawork and the good songs, the sound is just so bad that I'm afraid I have to recommend skipping this DVD.
• XXV (2008) For the band's 25th anniversary, they decide to release a double CD set of many of their classic songs re-recorded, focusing mostly on their older songs, since the production on those albums weren't as good as later albums. I really questioned how good an album like this could be, but about 5 seconds into the first non-intro track on the album, and I was like "awww yeah, this is gonna be awesome". The songs are not only rerecorded, but changed around a bunch, with new intros, new endings, extra keyboards used well in certain spots. Many songs are faster, a few seem slower than their album counterparts. And mostly, the production is spectacular, certainly the best mix Vader has ever had. And with all the changes to the songs, it's like hearing them again fresh for the first time. A few of these songs are inferior to their originals, like I much prefer the version of 'Wings' and 'Xeper' on "Litany" than the re-recorded versions, but stuff from their first and second album are really well done, nice alternates to the originals. My only one worry would be that since their original drummer Doc could not participate in this album (he died in 2005), I don't want these songs to become the new standard versions. Drummer Daray does a great job, but I don't want Doc's versions to die with him. So while the newly recorded version of 'Silent Empire' or 'Sothis' are really well done and fun to listen to, I will always cherish the originals, and hope that new Vader fans go back and get those original albums, and not stick with this collection. The album ends with 3 covers, which are fun, but nothing special. Definitely worth picking up.
  

• Stench of the Deceased (1999) A cross between Cannibal Corpse and Broken Hope, a cross because they have low vocals a bit in the Broken Hope style, and they do these tremolo on the low strings of their guitar like Cannibal Corpse does. But leaving the arena of influences, these guys are tight as hell, really detuned guitars (and a 6 string bass from what I'm told), and a fast drummer who likes keeping those double kicks going fast and constant (heavily triggered bass drums keeps a solid low pounding going through many of the tracks). Riff wise a mix of medium paced alternate picked and tremolo riffs, and the occasion heavy as shit palm muted chunk fest (with a squawk thrown in for good measure.) Production is excellent with the right mix of low and crisp high end. Songs are great and quite memorable. An excellent debut for any band.
• Depopulate (2002) Song writing wise, no surprises here, low detuned guitars, tremolo and fast picking. The bass drums keep a steady highly triggered beat underneath really low gutteral vocals. Unfortunately, the production on this album could be better, the guitars have a sort of muffled sound to them, reminding me a bit of Morbid Angel from the "Domination" album (it's not quite that bad, but still very noticeable from the first few notes of the album). It doesn't detract too much from the performance, but production tweaks would definitely raise the album up a few notches. As it stands, good songs, if you dug the last album, here's another slice from the same pie.
• The New Age of Chaos (2005) Well thankfully the bass is back on this release (nice and distorted too), although the guitars still sound a little muffled, but otherwise this is almost identical to their last album in style, tempo and sound. And that's not a bad thing really, their last album was solid and this one is too with plenty of decent songs. But I really wish they would try and expand their repertoire just a bit, maybe some odd sounds, odd time signatures, a moratorium on the continuous doublekicks, something to move their cds from the consistently good category to the great category. There are a few hints of something more, like in their song 'Suicide Warfare' where the drummer does these neat cymbal fills, and 'Sentenced To Live' has a really awesome um-pa low pounding riff that carries us out to the end of the song, and 'Ritual Decapitation' starts off with a nice low chunky riff, those are the areas the band needs to nurture and explore further in future cds. As it stands, this is another good album from the band, and well worth buying, but I hope the band chooses in the future to take a few more risks within the confines of their chosen style so they can move forward.

• Internal Decomposition (Demo, 2000)
• Remnants Of Deprivation (2002) We have trills, we have tapping riffs and sqwacks, we have blast beats, we have some very low barked vocals. All the elements are there, but while the pieces do fit and the band is obviously making a valiant effort, the album never seems to rise above the bar, or find a space that hasn't been explored by any number of other bands before. So what you end up with is something between Dying Fetus' "Infatuation With Malevolence" (especially the guitar solos) and Disavowed. A for effort, B for results.
• Transcend Into Ferocity (2004) To talk about this album is to talk about two other albums, first, their debut "Remnants of Deprivation", and second, Spawn of Possession's "Cabinet". When I first listened to this cd, I thought to myself "ah, sounds like "Cabinet"". But then a little research and I realized that "Remnants" (which also sounds like "Cabinet") came out a year before "Cabinet" did. Anyways, regardless of who was first to achieve this particular style, if you liked their first album or enjoyed "Cabinet" like I did, this material is quite similar. Sound wise, the production on this cd isn't as dry as on their previous cd, a little noisier perhaps but also more intense and louder. Lots of very complex riffs, the drumming is noteworthy for jumping between blasting and more traditional beats at a breakneck pace. The rest of the band does the same, tremolo picking followed by alternate picking, then chunky parts and a squawk or two, and this is all in a single bar at superfast speed. I think the songwriting went up a notch for this recording, it's not as generic as I felt their last album was sometimes. So basically they're doing the same sort of stuff, but the production is better, the songs are better, it's "Remnants" on steroids. They could perhaps still get a slightly better produced cd still, but otherwise, all fans of technical yet still musical death metal should grab a copy of this.
• Absorbing the Disarray (2007) Again, similar to their last CD, but even more refined. An even tighter performance, improved mix, even better song writing, and even more speed and aggression. But the core of the band is the same, they haven't reinvented themselves, they've just spent their time perfecting their craft. The result is a pretty vicious CD, maybe still a little too chaotic at times, but angry in all the right ways. Recommended.

• Reduced To Ashes (1989, Demo)
• Excruciating Pain (1990, Demo)
• The Black Mass (1990, 7inch)
• Let Us Pray (1992)
• Into Cold Darkness (1995)
• Forever Underground (1997)
• Dawn Of The Apocalypse (2000)
• Dechristianize (2003) While not quite Origin's "Informis Infinitas Inhumanitas", this album will give you that same feeling of "Holy shit, that drummer is inhuman!" Blasts faster than you've ever heard, ridiculously fast triggered kicks, and a constant onslaught of buzzsaw guitars. Sort of picking up where Cryptopsy's "Blasphemy Made Flesh" left off (or maybe a touch of the first Hate Eternal), we have Vital Remains' latest effort with Glen Benton of Deicide on vocals, Tony Lazaro on guitar, and Dave Suzuki (not to be confused with David Suzuki, the famous Canadian Naturalist) on both the drums, bass and lead guitar. The result is a spectacular album. Production is good, maybe a little lacking in the bass department, but everything is still plenty clear and it's certainly a professional mix. The solos are very complex fast scale and harmonized guitar type stuff. Basic song structures consist of super fast tremolo picked rhythms with crazy drumming and then harmonized guitar breaks. In fact, the song structure is basically the only nit I have with this album, in that it becomes a little predictable after awhile. But the songs are good, and the performance is nothing short of spectacular. Looks like Dave favors the guitar in the live situation, so I hope whomever he uses as a replacement drummer can keep this frantic pace up. A shame I found this a year late, or else it may have appeared in my ten best albums of 2003. This is certainly required listening.
  
• Icons of Evil (2007) Fans of the last album know what to expect. A constant barrage of ridiculously fast doublebass, tremolo guitars, blasphemous vocals from Glen Benton and super fast solos. The songs seem a little more focused in this album than the last, although you still get those 8 minute songs that seem to repeat the main theme a few too many times. Again, that's my only knit with the band, if they took these 8 minute songs and reduced them to 5 minutes, I believe the songs would be just a bit tighter and that much stronger. But overall "Icons Of Evil" is one hell of an album, with fantastic riffs, great production from Erik Rutan of Hate Eternal fame, and just a crazy level of intensity all the way through. If you want a super fast album that doesn't let up for a second, look no further.
• Evil - Death - Live (2007, DVD) Live DVD for the band, contains 9 tracks and a bunch of extras. The main concert is good, the performance is excellent, the sound is great. Most of the songs are off their last album. The venue is huge, with a giant stage and thousands of fans moshing. My only real problem is the problem I have with many concert DVDs, the camera switcher is on crack. While the picture quality is good, the guy just switches cameras every 0.1 seconds or so, almost creating a strobe effect for the whole show, never giving your eye enough time to even decide what you're looking at, never mind enjoying someone's performance. And when an interesting bit does happen, the camera is elsewhere. Is there a cool solo going on? Well, lets focus on the guitarist's head, not his fingers. A fast drum bit that may be interesting to watch? Lets focus on the ceiling of the venue. It really ruins an otherwise excellent concert. The vocalist for the concert is not Glen Benton as you may expect, but the new guy does an excellent job of looking evil and belting out some evil stuff. And every time guitarist Dave Suzuki does his backing vocals, he has this great look on his face like he's being anally raped by satan himself. Its only 9 songs (they're long, of course), and the songs do have a certain sameness to them, but if you're buying this DVD, you obviously have listened to the CDs, and so you know what to expect. Bonus features include 6 songs from another concert. That concert is more bootleg like, but still decent sound and decent video (the camera switches just as fast though, be warned). Also, about 10 minutes of Dave playing all the solos from the album. I wish they'd had a stationary camera so we could have seen his amazing fingers at work, instead, you get fast switching between two cameras, and each camera is moving all over the place, missing both fingers frequently, making that part sorta useless. The interview section is really interesting, with lots of background on the band and frank talk about their music and lives. They also discuss their anti-christian lyrics, and how they should be viewed as an opinion, and everyone should come to their own conclusions and make their own choices. I feel this DVD is worth watching, but probably not rewatching, thanks to the ridiculous camerawork. A shame it's sorta ruined by a force the band doesn't have control over.
  

• Primal Massacre (2004) Sorta reminiscent of Angelcorpse or Severe Torture, lots of blasting in 4/4 time with tremolo picked riffs over top. A few slower bits similar to recent Bolt Thrower keep things from becoming too same-as. A few of the riffs are cool, like the galloping riff at the beginning 'Condemned By Pride', and the production is thick and well mixed, but overall, most of the riffs go by and don't seem to leave their mark. After 2 listens all the way through, I can't particularly remember any standout bits. Too much gravy, not enough turkey, the band has plenty of potential and do a lot of things right, but a little more time on the songs would improve things tremendously.

• In The Name Of Vomit / Brutally Violated (Demo)
• Supreme Entity (1999) The Japanese Dying Fetus. This 3 piece from Japan blasts us with 8 tracks of the usual technical death metal. Although parallels can and will be drawn between them and Suffocation, the most apt comparison is probably Dying Fetus' album "Infatuation with Malevolence", whose riff style, solos and all around sound this band copies very successfully. Not that that's a bad thing, the cd does have enough truly unique moments, and moments that aren't so unique are at least done very, very well. It's got nice squawks that Cannibal Corpse would be envious of, and the riffs are all very well thought out and the songs definitely get you moving with their mixture of groove and low chunky bits. The vocals are mainly low and guttural with the occasional high pitched scream fest, guitar wise, there's no overdubs here, so the guitar sound is clear although could probably sound a little thicker with a second guitar in there. Overall production is fine. Fast blasts and double kicks, all on an electronic drum kit which means many of the notes do tend to sound a little too mechanical (especially the sampled crash cymbal). If you're into Suffo or DF I definitely say get a copy of this CD, it's pretty fucking intense and well worth the cash.
• Indefensible Vehemence (2002, EP) Sorta a disappointment. All the elements are there for some really cool Dying Fetus inspired metal, but something is missing. After a lot of analysis, I think it comes down to a few factors. First, there is almost no bass whatsoever. So while the production is good, in fact, probably a step up from their previous cd, the sound is sorta thin, while "Entity" had a certain raw aggressive sound to it. Then the songs seem a little slower, without the same energy level of their previous cd. Well, actually, I suppose there are a few faster parts, but it seems like they're placed sorta randomly, vs having say a slow part then building up to something heavier or faster. Anyways, the songs need some work, and the sound needs some tweaking, but the band has done some cooler stuff in the past, so hope to see some of these problems worked out for their next full length release.
• Supreme Vehemence (2005, comp) A combination of their "Supreme Entity" CD and "Indefensible Vehemence" CD. Also includes 2 video clips, 'My Blessed Sickness' and two Cryptopsy covers ('Defenstration' and 'Slit Your Guts') taken from the band's first show in 1998. Both are bootleg quality, with clear production but a single camera and bad contrast so its tough to see the performers. If you don't already have these two CDs, then I'd recommend getting this CD, otherwise, the extra video clips (and nice new cover artwork) aren't really enough to warrant a repurchase.