Litany New Mexico

Litany

Vader

Metal Blade Records, 2000

REVIEW BY: Christopher Thelen

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED: 12/08/2000

It's been a while since Vader has graced these pages - I can'texplain why that's so, especially after their Live In Japan disc got a decent review from me.

However, I think I might have done the band a disservice bylabelling them as a "death metal" band 18 months ago. Their releasefrom earlier this year, Litany, has all the makings of a death metal album, to besure - but Peter Wiwczarek and crew seem to take a differentapproach when it comes to the lyrical content, and allow thelistener to decide just what the lyrics mean to them.

It's an interesting concept - and if the music didn't tend toblend together into one metallic lump, it would be far moresuccessful.

I don't want to sound like I'm ripping the band right off thebat. In fact, there are many things that Vader does that break themold of traditional death metal, and I like that they're takingthose chances. Wiwczarek chooses to have his vocals heard moreclearly than many of his genre brethren; while they stilloccasionally fall to the rear of the mix, you don't have to alwayssit there with the lyrics to decipher what he's saying. Likewise,the band could have taken their speed and thrown the switch wideopen. Instead, while there are elements of speed metal on Litany, the focus is more on the instrumentation, andfiguring out how to get the most from the performance, not from themetronome.