Every so often, when I cave into critical pressure and buy a really “underground” or “cult” death 7″, I start to think I’m tiring of extreme death metal. I start to think maybe my proverbial time with blasts ‘o plenty and furious riffs has come to an end. I start to think maybe my rage isn’t as strong as it once was and I might be mellowing out. But then a true, quality, death release like Vader’s latest, Revelations, comes along. And what I realise is that I’m not mellowing out or not appreciating death metal anymore – it’s just that a lot of death these days is redundant, boring and (to put it plainly) really shitty. So, it takes bands like Vader, Insision and Nile – bands that are all taking this subgenre up and beyond what we’ve all heard time and time again – to truly re-ignite death’s flame.

Revelations is a disastrous and brutal album from start to finish; not for a second does it let up on the choking grip it has over your throat. Double-kick; lightning solos; barked-straight-from-Lucifer’s-throne vokills; rumbling, thundering bass – is there any more a death metal fan can ask for? Actually, yes there is. What is the questionable element I speak of? It’s called song-craft. Vader, quite fortunately, has song-craft in (ace of) spades. Opener “Epitaph” begins with an ominous down-tuned ‘n’ crash cymbal configuraton that warns of impending doom, “The Nomad” incorporates stellar, precise groove, and “Revelation of Black Moses” could have been on either Dismember or Venom’s debut. That’s high praise, kids. Know what else? Record highlight “The Code” stands even a cut above the rest of the stellar material found on this disc. Like Kaamos’ “The Storm Of Coming” (off of their criminally under-rated self-titled disc), “The Code” might just be one of my favorite death metal tracks of all time. Adjectives/descriptors that continue to come to mind as I spin this record again and again: furious, unrelenting, stifling, empowering. Revelations is the soundtrack the death troops use to ready themselves for the war against the masses.

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