Live In Japan

Live In Japan

Vader

Pavement Music, 1999

REVIEW BY: Christopher Thelen

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED: 05/24/1999

While metal is experiencing a revival in America, it hasoccasionally surprised me to find out some of the countries thatare enjoying a good self-inflicted headbanging concussion. With nodisrespect intended, I never would have thought that Japan was acountry big into heavy metal and thrash, but Live In Japan, the latest release from Polish death metalband Vader, showed me otherwise.

While the overall quality of their performance (recorded inAugust of last year) is quite good, Vader does show that grindcorecan seem to get old quickly, even if the material is otherwisesound. Especially for someone who is first discovering this band(and I include myself in that category), Live In Japan can be an overwhelming listen, as one tries totake in everything new at once.

The group - vocalist/guitarist Peter, guitarist Mauser, bassistShambo and drummer Doc (sometimes I really wish these people woulduse their last names), Vader plows through a decent number oftracks, including a few "intros" and two surprising cover choices.If you've followed the band since their debut release Morbid Reich in 1990, then this collection is undoubtedly adream come true.

But newcomers will find this a lot to digest in one sitting, andwhile tracks like "Black To The Blind", "Carnal" and "Reborn InFlames" do impress, after a while, I found myself becoming mentallyexhausted listening to "new" track after "new" track. While Live In Japan did serve its purpose by raising my interestin Vader, baptism by blood is not the best way to discover the band(though I think they'd find something funny in thiscomparison).