Album Details

• Artist: Vader
• Album: Xxv
• Label: Regain
• Year of Release: 2008
• ME Rating:
• Reviewed by: solitaryman on 2008-09-04

What can a band deliver it's fans after 25 years of action? Despite their rising to popularity more throughout the mid and late 90's, Vader's steady climb up the steep slope of Polish's metal scene (and then the world) deserves it's own memorial, it's own celebration of sorts. As an anniversary present to the faithful and a retrospective the band no doubt had to enjoy traversing, XXV and it's 2 discs of altogether re-recorded Vader material, old and new and in between, is extremely solid. You may find the older fans bickering about the updated production values, but none of the viciousness or rage is lost on the classics while new modern touches open new avenues the music previously failed to explore.

The first disc focuses on material released throughout the 90's, when the band, after spending many years solidifying their line-up and defining their sound, began a journey through the ranks of the underground heroes to world-wide stardom. Ask any metalhead to list off the names of all the Death Metal bands he knows...9 times out of 10 Vader is mentioned. This disc offers up every classic reason for why this is, staples such as "Dark Age" and "Silent Empire" benefiting greatly from their modern beefing-up. Disc 2 sounds more in-line with what the band has been doing recently, which is really quite the same as what they were doing 15 years ago. There are some bonuses, a few tracks written in their native Polish (which they used to be fond of doing before hitting the mainstream) and a pretty devilish cover of Terrorizor's "Fear Of Napalm". 

Most Vader fans should not think about this purchase; I would expect it to be an instinctive buy. For the die-hards out there dedicated to the shoddily-produced early stuff and love the band for that and that alone, you might take issue with XXV. And newcomers should have a great starting point here, as the album really does encompass all of the material that turned Vader into a name bigger than most in metal circles. 

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