Tuesday 10 June 2014

Vader - Tibi Et Igni (Album Review)


Album Type : Full Length
Date Released : 30/5/2014
Label : Nuclear Blast

Vader - ‘Tibi Et Igni’ (CD/DD/LP) track listing :

1. Go to Hell 4:36
2. Where Angels Weep 2:18
3. Armada on Fire 3:50
4. Triumph of Death 3:45
5. Hexenkessel 5:28
6. Abandon All Hope 2:23
7. Worms of Eden 3:34
8. The Eye of the Abyss 6:45
9. Light Reaper 4:28
10. The End 4:55

Bio :

Almost three years have passed since the highly acclaimed »Welcome To The Morbid Reich« by polish Death Metal legends VADER came out. Following the release on August 12, 2011, the band that was founded in 1983, landed several respectable chart entries - #6 in Poland, #17 at the US Billboard Heatseekers Charts and #73 in Germany to name but a few – VADER hit the road for a massive tour circle. The touring between November 2011 and November 2013 saw the fierce foursome play a total of almost 200 shows in 25 different countries.

In 2014, VADER return with the absolute heaviest album in their career. The Latin titled new creation »Tibi Et Igni« was recorded between December 2013 and February 2014 at Hertz Studio in Bialystok (Poland). Wojtek and Slawek Wieslawski were brought in to produce this upcoming death metal sledgehammer of an album and it doesn’t take more than the first few seconds of the opening track `GO TO HELL´ to appreciate the strength of the new record’s position in VADER’s multifaceted discography. With riffs that sound akin to a demolition squad, double bass attacks like uppercuts and vocals that echo from your guts like thunder in the night, VADER have outdone themselves on their new opus. “Tibi Et Igni” embodies death metal in perfection! 

Demons are knocking to your door now....

The Band

Peter   | vocals
Spider | guitar
Hal      | bass
James  | drums

Review :

Often times, while reading a review about a new Vader album, you’ll find some variation of the phrase “it sounds like Vader, so you know what you’re getting into”. Now, that might be true to a certain extent, but there are certainly good and bad Vader albums, despite being on essentially the same path since their inception. There’s a difference in conviction and effort that varies from album to album. That is the major difference that separates an album like “Litany” from an album like ‘The Beast’, for example. I’m happy to say that ‘Tibi Et Igni’ is more “Litany” than “Beast” and considerably better than even 2011’s “Welcome to the Morbid Reich”, which as a very good album.

The album begins with an orchestral interlude, not unlike what you might hear on a Dimmu Borgir album before breaking into the bulk of opening song “Go to Hell”, which very clearly recalls “Legion of the Dead” from Testament’s 1999 album ‘The Gathering’. From that moment on, Vader is at the top of their game, with extra emphasis on the word “their”.
It’s a Vader album through and through, although there are some pleasant deviations from the standard Vader formula. “Triumph of Death” breaks from the blast-and-thrash of the first several songs with its mid-tempo stomp. Relative lack of speed aside, it’s a real headbanger  and one of Vader’s best as far as obligatory “break from the onslaught” kind of songs go.

“Hexenkessel” has a very different melodic sensibility from a typical Vader song, not to mention the semi-shocking groove once the cinematic opening fades away. It would typically seem out of place, but it works better than you’d think. Once the blasting begins, the riff remains a bit more melancholy; it’s almost borderline black metal. It’s just one of a number of ways that Vader manages to keep up the energy level of ‘Tibi Et Igni’ without having the barrage making you numb.

The production on ‘Tibi Et Igni’ is perfectly suited to Vader. While it definitely sounds like a modern metal album, there’s enough humanity to it to keep it from sounding overly digital, which I think was a bit of an issue on ‘Welcome to the Morbid Reich’. The drums are punchy, but not so mechanical that they sound alien to discerning ears. Speaking of the drums, new drummer James Stewart seems to be a better fit for Vader than his predecessor, even with this being his debut album for the band. That’s not to say Paul Jaroszewicz isn’t a great drummer, but Stewart’s subtle choices and general style work better for Vader overall.

It must be said that it’s no mean feat that Vader is still releasing albums of this magnitude at this stage in their career. Their consistency has only occasionally dipped in the 22 years their debut, and with ‘Tibi Et Igni’, they have proven that they are still capable of presenting albums on par with the highest tier of their discography. After all these years, and like Carcass did with Surgical Steel last year, Vader have reminded the world with ‘Tibi Et Igni’ that songwriting beats unchecked brutality every time.

Words by : Daniel Jackson

You can get it here