VADER - Thy Messenger
July 13, 2019, 5 years ago
(Nuclear Blast)
Fun little stop-gap EP here from Polish DM kings Vader, Thy Messenger containing three new tunes, a re-worked version of their 2000 tune “Litany” from the album of the same name, and a cover of Judas Priest's “Steeler”.
“Grand Deceiver” starts things off, and it rules, the band laying down a concise 2:14 death metal rager, full of the beyond-Slayer solos and excellent songwriting that makes Vader so great. “Litany” is next, and it sounds even more spot-on than the original; granted, I was not a fan of that album's production sound, so this is a welcome improvement. Up next are “Emptiness” and “Despair”, the two other new songs on this EP, and at 2:37 and 1:18 respectively, it becomes clear pretty quick that Vader are delivering some of their shorter, more aggressive material here, which works great in the EP format, these two tracks racing past in a wonderful blur of classy, heavy, thrashing death that never sacrifices songwriting smarts for sucker punches. Rounding it off, Vader doing Priest is more or less what you'd expect: it's fun, it's heavy, it's metal, and it all makes for a killer EP. I love EPs like this, I love Vader, so this is a horns-up win-win.
