At the risk of losing what little credibility I have within the metal community, I have a confession to make.
I do not own a single Vader release. Not one.
In fact the last Vader record I actually heard was 2002’s Revelations, and before that the only Vader record I physically even owned in the past was Black to the Blind, and I picked that up in a used bin. So, you’ll have to forgive me for not getting a boner over a 4 song/ 3 video between album filler EP.
That being said, I rather enjoyed these 3 new songs on offer. They seem to be more melodic, solo filled and rollicking than I remember but still full of those rumbling drums and Piotr “Peter“ Wiwczarek’s distinct gruff, more thrash based vocals. “Lead Us” and “Die” are high octane blazers, while “The Book” is a epic slow burner, then you get a cover of Slayer’s classic, “Reign In Blood” which delivers no real surprises.
More of interest to fans will be the three video on this enhanced EP. You get 2 typically low-fi filmed in a deserted warehouse videos for “This Is the War” (From The Art of War EP) and “Helleluyah!!! (God is Dead)” from 2006’s Impressions In Blood. However, there is a video for the song “Sword of the Witcher”, a song recorded for the respectable German PC RPG “Witcher”, and the higher quality and production values of the video interlaced with scenes from the game, is pretty cool, although the song is far from Vader’s usual fare.
Die hard Vader fans will probably only want this if the three new songs don’t appear on a forthcoming album, and the “Sword of the Witcher” video, the rest of us might want to hold off.
