Vader - Necropolis

Published September 03 2009

*=Staff's pick	Devilizer Rise Of The Undead* Never Say My Name Blast The Seal Dark Heart Impure Summoning The Futura Anger We Are The Horde* When The Sun Drowns In Dark Black Metal (Venom Cover) Fight Fire With Fire (Metallica Cover)

Genre	Death Metal	Peter	Vocals
Tracks	13	Peter	Guitar
Runningtime	41 Min.	Vogg	Guitar
Label	Nuclear Blast	Reyash	Bass
Release	21 August 2009	Paul	Drums
Country	Poland	-	Keyboard
Similar artists	Behemoth

It has been a hectic and problem-filled past year for Vader main man Piotr Wiwczarek. Many and long tours, as usual, and in the middle of it all he lost 75% of his band, meaning everyone but himself. Apparently this album was written before that happened so I wouldn't think that had anything to do with the outcome of the result. Mr. Wiwczarek is a professional out to his fingertips so he gathered a new force and just keeps grinding on.

The quality level of this album is high as usual, with a few small peaks (Rise Of The Undead, We Are The Horde) and a few songs that merely passes by, but overall it is fast, furious and standard Vader. The production is great and the vocals by Peter are as great, powerful and articulate as ever.

There are plenty of delicious riffs to be found here, as ususal with Vader, but the songs as a whole are not always that captivating. They roll along in a very recognisable style, sometimes furiously fast, but most of the time groovy and heavy and it is in the latter case I find it the best this time.

The first trio of songs have a great groove and catchy choruses but the songs as a whole, and that goes for the whole album from there on, do not really stick out. The album then dips a bit in the mid section with some average tracks, and a couple of them are in fact just an intro for the next song, and it takes off for real again at the end with We Are The Horde and the slowest song When The Sun Drowns In Dark.

The album is, and also feels, very short (if you count out the closing covers) and since it does not contain any real killer cuts along the way, you are left with a slight feeling of "was this all?". Rise Of The Undead and We Are The Horde are great songs, but the rest is more or less like another day at the job. Some of the song structures we have indeed heard before (for example in Devilizer) and that is one of the reasons to why I am satisfied but not blown away by the album.

Necropolis is still Vader as we know them, and as a fan you will like this, but perhaps this album just doesn't show them from their best and sharpest side. It ends up somewhere above the middle of their discography.

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

Performance	Originality	Production	Vocals	Songwriting
8,5	7	8,5	9	6

Summary
6,5 chalices of 10 - Tommy