Vader - De Profundis (1995)^{Release ID: 3715}

Vader's best album with numerous classic tracks. This is pure, exciting death metal from a legendary band.

Vader's De Profundis album is generally considered their best work and I'm not going to disagree. While the band have been very consistent throughout their lengthy career, they haven't released an album that surpasses this one when it comes to sheer excitement and entertainment. The Vader style hasn't changed all that much since to be honest, but their production has become clinical and precise to the point where it lacks a little of the raw venom that death metal thrives on. De Profundis has a far more organic sound and a greater level of urgency than albums such as Litany or Impressions in Blood, no matter how technically fantastic those releases are. Every aspect of this album is exactly how it should be on a successful, brutal death metal album and therefore marks the highlight of their discography.

A highlight on all Vader releases prior to 2005 must be Doc's drumming. Just as Dave Lombardo manages with Slayer, Doc always had an incredible ability to get the absolute most out of his drumkit. There was never a stage where he was just backing up the rest of the band. His double bass kicking, blast beats and fills are all first rate and immensely powerful, without ever becoming overbearing. His death was a huge loss to both the band and metal in general. The riffs throughout the album are fantastic and remind me of the more shredding side of Morbid Angel with just a touch of thrash. They keep the velocity high and crank riff after riff at the listener while never breaking the momentum. Peter's vocals have always been up there with my favourite in the genre. His always distinguishable yet ever aggressive style is damn perfect for creating memorable and brutal death metal.

It's hard to criticise the album for a lack of variety when it only has a running time of 34 minutes and contains so many mosh-worthy sections. Tracks such as Silent Empire, Blood of Kingu, Sothis and Reborn in Flames are right up there with the best the band have ever produced and none of the remaining pieces are any less intense or worthy of getting excited about. De Profundis deserves its reputation as one of the better death metal albums of its time and Vader's peak performance.

I was lucky enough to discover Vader very early on in their recording career with 1992’s “The Ultimate Incantation” debut album first crossing my path shortly after release & at a time when I was completely obsessed with death metal (which… let’s fact it… has never really changed, has it?). I quite liked it too although the fact that I haven’t returned to it since the 1990’s is probably a sign that its impact wasn’t as significant as some of the more classic death metal releases of the time. It did, however, do enough for me to see me seeking out its follow-up “De Profundis” as soon as it hit the streets as well as a couple of Vader’s earlier demos in 1989’s “Necrolust” & 1990’s “Morbid Reich”, both of which I got some enjoyment out of. “De Profundis” would be the record that would cement Vader as an artist worthy of deeper attention for me though so I’ve been excited to take another look at it this week.

Now, let’s get the obvious out of the way right from the start. “De Profundis” is a well-executed example of mid- 90’s death metal produced by a band that clearly possessed a strong pedigree in the extreme metal underground. The band can all play their instruments well & the production is more than acceptable. Those statements alone will generally be enough to ensure a strong score from me given my undeniable affiliations with the genre & era. The question has to be asked about Vader’s credentials for the higher tier ratings though & we're about to take a look at why.

For all the positives on display on “De Profundis”, the major elephant in the room is the fact that they are so clearly trying to emulate the most premium band in the entire global scene at the time in Morbid Angel. The worship is absolutely blatant at times with the riff structures, vocal style & phrasing, drumming & guitar solos all paying homage to the one & only Morbid Angel, a band that I was as obsessed with as any other artist in my life-time when “De Profundis” hit the streets. This leads to the question of whether Vader can compete on that lofty scale & the answer is a categorical no which immediately limits Vader’s scoring potential given that they’ve been relegated to tier two status right from the get-go. The class in their execution & the consistency in their song-writing ability are their feathers in both caps though & Vader draw upon both of those attributes to create a high-quality (if a touch generic) death metal record.

The vocals of front man Piotr Wiwczarek are worth discussing because they’re slightly different to what you would usually expect from a death metal band. His tone is simply not as monstrous or growly, perhaps even semi-clean, & I see this as a slight weakness if I’m being honest. His intelligibility could be argued to be a strength though as it gives Vader a level of accessibility that some of their peers are not always afforded. There are plenty of blast-beats on offer & Morbid Angel’s Pete Sandoval has clearly been an influence on drummer Krzysztof Raczkowski although he lacks the unparalleled power, control & precision of his idol. The guitar solos are probably the highlight of the record for me & we once again see Morbid Angel being the major influence here with Trey Azagthoth’s psychotic chaos being reflected pretty accurately here & with great effect too just quietly. I love the sheer over-the-top energy they bring to proceedings & can accept the similarities to the man who was very much my own personal idol at the time.

One of the real strengths of “De Profundis” is the consistent quality in the song-writing with the tracklisting being very consistent & offering no weak tracks as such. It doesn’t, however, offer as many highlights as I would generally need from an elite death metal release with only the outstanding “Blood of Kingu” (I’m assuming yet another reference to Morbid Angel’s lyrics) being the clear classic of the nine songs. “Of Moon, Blood, Dream & Me” stands out as the weaker number included & is affected by Wiwczarek’s vocal performance which seems to struggle a bit at times but it’s still worth a few listens & isn’t a major distraction.

Look, despite the fact that “De Profundis” doesn’t attempt anything majorly new & targets one band’s sound in particular, I can’t deny that I fucking love that sound so I was always going to find a lot of entertainment in Vader’s sophomore effort. In fact, I’d suggest that it may well be the Pole’s best full-length overall although I do tend to reach for their 2005 “The Art of War” E.P. as my go-to Vader release these days. I can’t see too many battle-hardened death metal fanatics not getting some jollies out of this one.

For fans of Morbid Angel, Hate & Malevolent Creation.