Vader
De Profundis

This review is dedicated to Doc, the phenomenal former drummer of Vader, who passed away a few days ago. Rip Brother!!!

In 1995, death metal in Poland was almost exclusively represented by the standard-bearers Vader (the Behemoth were still engaged in their primitive black realm and the Decapitated, the current young revelations, were probably still too young to do something), a band active since 1983 (!!!) initially devoted to a fairly canonical thrash-death, then turning, after the release of the first masterpieces of the genre (Seven Churches, Scream Bloody Gore, Altars Of Madness, Left Hand Path, to name some of the most famous), to an extremely original form of death metal, verrrry violent, relatively linear and smooth and firmly anchored to the eighties thrash, with which these Poles had grown up. Here we go then, after the 1990 demo “Morbid Reich” (the best-selling death demo of all time, it seems) several highly valuable records followed, which allowed Vader to emerge from the underground, where they had remained far too long, and to be noticed even outside of their very conservative country, adverse to metal to levels we could almost define as Italian.

The big hit, however, happened in 1995, a year in which death was more of an echo of the 1991-1993 triennium, but which still continued to churn out its (almost) last masterpieces (“Symbolic”, ”Domination”, ”Once Upon The Cross”, ”World Demise”, ”None So Vile”, ”Pierced From Within”, to stay within the North American death field).
Hence, joining these exceptional works is “De Profundis”, a record that fundamentally added nothing to what had already been said in America or Sweden, but that provided a breath of fresh air to a genre that was heading towards stagnation.
The formula is simple: violence, violence, and more violence. Vader's sound finds its pivot around Peter's very original vocals, not a proper growl but equally “kick-ass”, the precise, very technical and very, very creative (I would have said very creative but it wouldn't have fit well) drumming of Doc (RIP) and fast and fundamentally linear riffs, with a technical component never an end in itself.
Inside this CD, there are some of the best things ever heard in death, like the headbanging riffs of the opener “Silent Empire” (the most beautiful track of the lot), the lightning-fast “An Act Of Darkness”, the very fast “Incarnation” and “Sothis” and the irregular “Revolt”, where Doc's mastery behind the skins takes the lead. Except for the experimental and slow “Blood Of Kingu”, slightly below the rest, the album does not present any drops in tone at all, although it will take some time to get it into your head. Great Vader and great Doc!