Review Summary: Vader shows, 20 years after their formation, that they are back with the fast and are not letting up any time soon.
Impressions In Blood is Vader’s 7th album, and what an album it is, considering the band was formed 22 years ago by Piotr Wiwczarek. And even though we get more or less the standard Vader sameness, one cannot expect a major shift in style or development anymore from a band like this, and that’s what makes people come back to it again and again. This (most of the time) works for Vader.
But what really gets me is Piotrs vocal style. Surley most in the Metal scene have heard them, as they are quite distinct from other Death Metal vocalists. Not a full on growl, nor the deepest grunt; it’s a style where shouting is involved, much like Thrash, with Death around the edges. This makes for a clearer, throatier sound. And it works with Vaders music, because not only is the band involved with the shredding of the strings and blastbeats, but has substance, with solos complimenting the riffs, drum work fitting tightly and accuratley to hold it together, and Piotrs Death/Thrash style completing the puzzle…it comes full circle, and makes for a great listen from an experienced band. And Vader knows when to stop. With just under 40 minutes of playtime, when finished, you know you’ve just had enough before you implode. The orchestral arrangements are also quite powerful; however short, they serve their purpose as breathers (there are three, the first song, an intro to Predators, and an intro to the last song) and add a bit of diversity to the album, which is always good.
Yet an album like this, with brutality around the clock, is not without it’s flaws. Predator, the sixth track, is filler. As the longest song on the album, it drags on and on, with a boring, unispired riff that doesn’t fit Vader at all, and overall recycled ideas. Every other song on here is better than this by tenfold; infact, on that note, some of the shorter tracks are the albums hightlights. There are also times of when repetitveness gets to a point where you think you replayed the last track. Take for example the chourus of God Is Dead; Piotr sounds, along with most of the other band, the same as they did on the chourus of Red Code. However, this can be a hit or miss: if you love one song or the other, you’re bound to like it’s counterpart.
So what we have here is a worthwhile listen from one of Poland’s finest. It is also, quite ironically, a good, accessible album for anyone getting into Vader, or Death Metal for that matter. Many of the songs are more than worthy of a long time Vader fan, and for a newbie seeking the paths of brutality, they should tread this album, after the classics.
