Death metal bands have long had a suffering relationship with the public: tone things down (even just slightly) to create some measure of coherence, and you're branded a sell-out. Keep things at the same brutal level you established on your underground, cult, grim, true, demo tape (yes, I know all those adjectives are supposed to be used strictly in the black metal context; I don't care), and you're called boring. What is a deathmonger to do? If you're Vader, Poland's premiere legion of death, you buck the trend and do neither: you create a great record, death metal rules be damned. Don't get me wrong - Revelations is a disastrous and raging affair, the album's choking grip over your throat not relenting for one second. But, amidst the double-kick; lightning quick solos; rumbling bass; and barked-straight- from-Lucifer's-throne vokills, you've got structured tracks that progress - oddly enough - like songs rather than walls of blastblastblast venom. Highlights are all over the place on the album, but notables include the down-tuned 'n' crash cymbal-infested 'Epitaph' and the forward-moving 'The Nomad'. One track, however, stands even a cut above the rest of the album's stellar material. Much like 'The Coming Storm' from Kaamos' criminally under-rated debut album, 'The Code' has quickly become one of my favorite death metal tracks of all time (no exaggeration either). Revelations is what the death masses march to on their way to fight the mainstream.