Vader - Necropolis

A band generally closes its door when almost all its members walk away maybe leaving behind only a single guy back. But sometimes that one guy is more than enough to carry on the band's legacy. And thats exactly what frontman and founding member of Vader Piotr '' Peter'' Wiwczarek did when everyone quit the band, move on. With new recruits in form of Vogg from Decapitated taking over the guitars,Reyash of Incantation managing the bass and Pawel Jaroszewicz of Hell-Born fame handling the drums, Peter's Vader has delivered another power-packed performance in his 8th full length release, Necropolis. The fact that they have come up with the album within a year of Peter losing his entire backing band makes the album even the more worth giving a hear.

Even after a complete revamp of the lineup, the band manages to retain the same old Vader-ish sounds as seen outright from the starting track Devilizer that contains those usual pile-driving riffs and the throaty vocals alongside the thunderous double bass beats, which had first got Vader noticed. With plenty of furious riffing at chugging fast pace and throaty,dry vocals Vader sound every bit like a polished war machine obliterating everything in its path. Blastbeats too are plenty inducing the perfect mosh atmosphere in tracks like Impure alongwith equally mosh inducing riffs. An interesting aspect about the album is that there are more solos than previous releases and each of these solos are executed with such focus that has been the trademark of the band that it makes you pump your fists against the wall in the pure adrenalin rush you get listening to it.

Also the album is shorter than usual, clocking just over thirty minutes mark. However this does not piss me off as long as tracks like Blast and Anger provide the infuriating moments of headbanging experience. We Are Horde and Rise Of The Dead are some of the tracks that showcases everything that is Vader. There are also some un-Vader points in the album in tracks like Impressions In Blood and XXV where keyboards outline the compositions. Also the band takes a more traditional heavy metal path in the closing track When The Sun Drowns In Dark, also its the only track that clocks over seven minutes. Venom's Black Metal and Metallica's Fight Fire With Fire are executed in pure Vader style in the end after all their own compositions are completed.

Although you would be done through with all the headbanging & moshing listening to Necropolis, in the end you might find yourself asking more from the band. Just over half hour, the album could have expanded more over Vader's style. But nevertheless Vader produces a top notch album in Necropolis without losing any grounds that once again goes on to show why Poland's Vader are still considered as death metal gods.