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By RYAN MAVITY
One thing about extreme metal, there is no mediocrity. It’s called extreme metal for a reason. It is either extremely good or extremely bad. Impressions in Blood from Polish death metal band Vader (the name is not a reference to Darth Vader; Vader means “father” in Polish), leans towards the former. What makes the album work is that it combines death and thrash metal into a pastiche that is challenging musically and maintains a defiant commitment to being as loud and as fast as it can be.
The first thing that jumps out at you on Impressions in Blood is the vocals of Piotr Wiwczarek. It’s not the usual Cookie Monster style you hear in death metal. He certainly has a growl, but because he is able to enunciate his words clearly, it gives Vader a depth that other bands like it don’t have. If Slayer’s Tom Araya is a treble, then Wiwczarek is the bass. Drummer Dariusz Brzozowski is also a high point. His rapid-fire style makes Lars Ulrich look like a narcolepsy victim.
The album gets off to appropriate start with the creepy “Intro” before segueing into “Shadow Fear,” which sets the stage for the band’s extreme style. Mixing death metal’s odd time signatures with slower sections and pure thrash, it immediately sets Vader apart. “Helleluyah (God Is Dead)” might be the album’s strongest track with its fist-pumping chorus combined with chaotic verses. “Predator” slows down the tempo and shows that Vader also has a little range. Throughout it all, Wiwczarek and Maurycy Stefanowicz show a similar guitar dynamic to Slayer’s Kerry King and Jeff Hanneman. Though their solos are not as blistering, they are nonetheless effective.
With such a relentless style, it would be easy for the band to be viewed as repetitive or monotonous, and indeed there are moments when the album becomes that way on such tracks as “Amongst the Ruins” and “Red Code”. However, the band rebounds with the album’s best guitar licks on “They Live!!!” and the slowed down, serial killer theme “The Book.”
Impressions in Blood was a bit of a revelation for me. It was the first time I heard the band, and admittedly, my hopes were not high. But I enjoyed the fact that it wasn’t just generic death metal. You can actually understand the lyrics, which may be scarier than the unintelligible bark most of these bands use. It has some musical complexity and kept me interested the whole time. The album art may seem familiar, but in Vader’s case, it may be the only thing to inspire that reaction.
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