Vader - Tibi Et Igni

Published July 03 2014

*=Staff's pick	Go To Hell Where Angels Weep Armada On Fire* Triumph Of Death Hexenkessel* Abandon All Hope Worms Of Eden* The Eye Of The Abyss The Light Reaper The End

Genre	Death Metal	Peter	Vocals
Tracks	10	Peter	Guitar
Running time	42 Min.	Spider	Guitar
Label	Nuclear Blast	Hal	Bass
Release	30 May 2014	James Stewart	Drums
Country	Poland	-	Keyboard
Producer	S. Wieslawski/W. Wieslawski
Similar artists	Behemoth, Morbid Angel

Good ol' reliable Vader, churning out high quality no frills thrash-infused death metal albums since 1992, with the arguable exception of 2004's slightly lukewarm 'The Beast'. They have become quite like your favourite hamburger joint. Not fancy, but oh so delicious. Their last service 'Welcome to the Morbid Reich' was one of the better in the bands history setting quite a bar for their new offering 'Tibi et Igni' (roughly 'You and Fire').

'Tibi et Igni' rests firmly on the classical Vader recipe with partly chugging/partly tremolo riffs found in the borderlands of thrash and death metal, the main riff of 'Triumph of Death' brings Exodus to mind, as the juicy bulk meat. Many of the tunes are built up around a main riff with a few leads and solos giving the necessary variation to avoid boredom and stagnation. Said solos are heavily thrash-inspired, Slayer often pops up as the main influence, without becoming too creaky.

Overall, like Vader's former outputs, it is not a particularly technical offering we are given in 'Tibi et Igni' with 'Worms of Eden' as a slight exception. The flavours of the drums are rather anonymous and do ever really become an integral part of the meat when the tempo goes up and the blast beats come out. Every now and then the double bass drums make an entrance for extra flavour, but to a less extent then on some of their previous offerings. Apart from that, the drums never really break out to verge on journeys of their own. They stay firmly in the meat and so with honours. Fundamentally, we are served our favourite Vader meat the way we always liked it. After a few chews though, it becomes apparent that something is slightly different. Something has happened to the seasoning.

Vader has been lurking in epical waters before, but on 'Tibi et Igni' this side of the band has really broken out. The intro to opening track 'Go to Hell' gives a slight hint, but on fifth track 'Hexenkessel' all hell really breaks loose. The bombastic epic feeling of said tune's intro is carried throughout the song and builds up to a climaxing chorus which is then followed by a cool down. In fact, all songs before 'Hexenkessel' serve as a build-up to said climax and the following tunes gives a necessary relief. Not the outstandingly best track per se, 'Hexenkessel' still becomes somewhat of the focal point of 'Tibi et Igni'.

The epic feeling is once again found at the latter part of the album on 'The Eye of the Abyss'. Even though not as strong a song as 'Hexenkessel' it has an interesting unpredictable structure which gives a nice slab of variation to this service. With the exception of the closing track aptly titled 'The End', 'Tibi et Igni' roams in the up- and mid-tempo regions. The latter has been somewhat of an Achilles heel in the past, particularly on 'The Beast', but comes better off on this album for instance the mid-section of 'Armada on Fire'.

On top of the meat we have the familiar trademark vocal cheese of Peter's. The well pronounced and barking growls are one the most distinct features of Vader's music and leave no surprises this time around. Beef and cheese, forget the salad, is served together in a classical bun. Where many bands go for the in-your-face whole wheat production that tends to blur the nuances in favour of a messy flavour explosion, Vader has the good sense to choose a light airy production that gives all flavours their necessary chance to breath. Initially this gives the more direct tracks a kind of neat edge, but without it the more epic tracks would become too much of an audial blur.

To put it simple, 'Tibi et Igni' gives us the expected meaty, juicy death/thrash burger with a rather different epic seasoning. Although their last more direct recipe had the higher peaks and was a true monster of an album, this new approach to the classical formula works really well and the composition makes the 42 minutes feel a lot shorter. Vegan hipsters will of course frown upon this, but for those who prefer the simple and tasty over the experimental and weird this is a recommended listen.

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

Performance	Originality	Production	Vocals	Songwriting
7	7	8	8	7

Summary
7,5 chalices of 10 - Tengan