Vader - Impressions In Blood

*=Staff's pick	Between Day And Night Shadowfear As Heavens Collide Helleluyah!!! (God Is Dead)* Field Of Heads Predator* Warlords* Red code Amongst The Ruins They Live!!* The Book

Genre	Death Metal	Peter	Vocals
Tracks	11	Peter	Guitar
Runningtime	32 Min.	Mauser	Guitar
Label	Regain Records	Nowy	Bass
Release	04 Sept. 2006	Daray	Drums
Country	Poland	-	Keyboards
Similar artists	---

Classical death act Vader have had some years in the shadows of bands such as Behemoth and Nile. Since their Litany album, the music seems to have been in a state of search. A search back to the sound and an identity. I recall Vader as a band that delivered extreme aggressive composing as could be heard on the Litany album. Then something happened, the sparkling glow around the band started to fade, something that became obvious on both Revelations and The Beast album, even though I gave them an extremely high judgement on the latter. For myself, It soon became obvious that my conclusion on this album was highly overestimated. I realised this after an evening when I went through their record catalogue and became suprised over the development that actually could be heard over the years.

Well, enough about the past. Impressions In Blood is the band's ninth full length album, add to this several mcd's and live releases and than you get the picture of an amazing career that this band have had since the start back in 1986. I remember myself as a teenager being totaly blown away during a live blasphemy in Sweden in the early 90's when they supported Bolt Thrower and Grave. I also recall a performance that nearly left the city of Motala in dust and ruins. Vader have been busy touring during the years and I think that almost anyone who is into death metal has at least one or two memorable shows in their mind. Sorry, there I slide back into the past...

Impressions In Blood holds eleven songs in a varied spectre of Vader-ish style which takes off with a Dimmu Borgir look-a-like intro called Between Day And Night, written by Vesanias Siegmar. Second one out, Shadow Fear, delivers a kind of ordinary Vader feeling apart from the infernal blast parts from Daray. Otherwise its pretty much as usual - good composed material and melodies with a touch of attack. I don't know if I really like the production on the vocals, it feels dry and a bit boring actually.

Much of the material on Impressions In Blood are very predictable, not in a bad way but somehow I miss something. And I find it difficult to precise exactly what it is that I search for and want more of. As said, great melodies and harmonies are put into the music, but it is something predictable about many of the songs. The answer to this could be very easy and I think it has to do with the fact that the evolution have hit the hand brake in this war machine. There are some highlights that witness of some new thinking and that things are in progress, take the Helleluyah!! (God Is Dead) for example. This one shows more than verses drowned in grind and refrains that feel like you already heard them. All in all I think that Impressions In Blood is a step forward for the band, It´s not an obvious success but songs like the heavy and atmospheric Predator, the extremely raw Warlords and They Live!! certainly convince me that Vader still have a lot to offer.

See also review of: Iron Times , Tibi Et Igni , Necropolis , XXV , And Blood Was Shed In Warsaw , Blood , The Beast

Production	Vocals	Compositions
8	6	7,5

Summary
7,5 chalices of 10 - Tim