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Barely one year has passed since the last time Vader played in Montreal. Fans of death metal were back in the Studio TD on February 9 to see them once again as well as Inhuman Condition and Origin.

The first band of the night was Tampa’s Inhuman Condition and fronted by the energetic Jeramie Kling. The band kicked things in motion with “Recycled Hate” and the small crowd went bonkers. Their death metal is brutal and fans push each other as the band kept the ball rolling with a succession of pounding riffs. As usual, Jeramie does not stand still for one second and that is one of the reasons why bassist Terry Butler (Obituary) and Taylor Nordberg (Deicide) give him all room he needs by staying in their respective spots as much as possible. 

He also interacts with the fans as much as possible and stated that a metal concert needs three things, headbangers, circle pits and crowd surfers. He put the emphasis on the fact that we had the first two elements, but we were missing the crowd surfers. That was resolved as soon as they played the song “The Neck Step” and “I’m Not The Monster”. Their cover of Death’s “Pull The Plug” was well received by fans and they pushed each other furiously during that classic. Their short set ended with their amazing cover of Blue Öyster Cult’s “Godzilla” and one of their biggest hits “Tyrantula”, where Jeramie took a pair of drumsticks and played the opening drum parts on the monitors. This short and intense set was exactly what was needed to start the night and I hope that Inhuman Condition will come back as headliners.  

Origin was the most technical band of the night, and fans were really excited to see them once again. The band played three selections from their most recent album entitled Chaosmos and spread them evenly in their set list. Signer Jason Keyser is very dynamic on stage and does not hesitate to interact with the crowd, he instructs the fans to make circle pits and to stage dive. He also controls the exact moment when the fans should stage dive to match their music as much as possible. Bassist Mike Flores and drummer John Longstreth were terrific on the rhythm section and were the backbone of the technical performance. Their fast music is intense and so intricate that is does not reach everyone, but most of the fans are really enjoyed their set. Jason even did a little crowd surfing before asking for a wall of death for their last song. Another great show from these guys and you could tell they had a blast doing it.

It was now time for Vader to get on stage and celebrate forty years of Polish death metal. The band started their fiery set list with some old classics from The Ultimate Incantation album.  Fans pushed each other to the intensive riffs of “Decapitated Saints”, “Chaos”, “Vicious Circle” and “Dark Age”. Peter interacted with the crowd and introduced most of the songs they played. The next batch of songs came from the album De Profundis and fans went wild during the songs “Silent Empire” and “Sothis”. From that point on, we kind of figured that this celebration was played in chronological order and that was fine with all of us. Spider and Hal were very dynamic on stage and swapped sides on multiple occasions. Crowd surfers repeatedly landed close to the pedal board of Peter or Spider so it did not take long before security appeared on each side of the stage to redirect the surfers back in the crowd in order to protect the band’s gear. 

Drummer Michal Andrzejczyk was a wild animal behind the kit and his precise and speedy drumming was a performance by itself. Considering the short length and the pace of many of their songs, the band was able to play titles from almost all of their discography. The crowd showed a lot of emphasis during “Cold Demons” and “Epitaph” before taking a little breather during the introduction of “This Is The War”. Their impressive performance ended with “Come And See My Sacrifice”, “Triumph Of Death” and their most recent song “Shock And Awe”. 

Vader did not have any issues this time, and their flawless show was impressive from beginning to end.