Prologue: This is my view for this Vader EP now, almost 20 years after my first review. I was doing some housework and BOOM! 'The Art of War' randomly started to play. It simply sounded godly, after many years not listening to it from start to finish, but only a song here and there. Hence, my new write-up for it. Originally I wanted it to be longer (well, obviously!), but I also missed some cover song stuff, of which the band is absolutely fantastic with, so I gave it only 7½ out of 10. Only live versions of these songs have appeared outside this EP, so this one is a truly special release.
Vader, the Polish band with massive amount of great albums and EPs. They formed in 1983 as a heavy/speed metal band. Well, death metal wasn't a thing back then. So later, in 1987, Vader changed their style to this brutal form of metal and started to put out releases almost every year... This one is dedicated to late Krzysztof "Docent" Raczkowski, the band's well-liked drummer, who died in August 2005. This EP was recorded in June, but Doc wasn't up for drumming anymore, so Dariusz "Daray" Brzozowski from Vesania stepped in again, like for the preceding album, 'The Beast' in 2004. The line-up is completed by the originator Peter (guitar and vocals) and Mauser (guitarist since 1997; I first heard him in Christ Agony and Dies Irae).
What is a musical equivalent to blitzkrieg? 'The Art of War' EP by Vader. With their "hell-knows-how-manyeth" (actually, after the seventh album came this, their 5th EP) release this quartet slay and leave no suffering half-dead in their path of savagery. 'Para Bellum' opens this with symphonic, growing "marching to war" theme, but Vader did not turn into a Dimmu Borgir clone, as quite straight death metal song 'This Is the War' shows, coming with battle axes swinging. The song accelerates into hyper speed of 'Litany' (2000) album after epic intro. The band are known for infectious riffs and excellent operative songwriting, and it shines right from the start. It's basically fast blast beats and hacking and belligerent guitar riffs and insane solos, with a few slower moments, up to electronic interlude 'Banners on the Wind' (reminds me of some computer game music). 'What Colour Is Your Blood?' is a groovier mid-paced battle tank, where double kick drumming gets into spotlight; total headbanging mayhem, the song has more variety than earlier ones with Slayer-esque slow part. The band finalizes the EP with a lightning-fast closing shot, which carries somewhat melancholic vibes amongst the methods of violence.
The band have never really got into mechanical-sounding territories, and despite its (not too bad or childish) cover artwork with war-bots and fast-as-Gatling gun drumming, this EP sounds pretty much organic and all the way Vader. The band didn't try much new possible things here, despite the artwork and animated music video, but I gladly take this, thank you. They've been perfecting this sound for years: Imposing heaviness provided by rhythm guitar, bass and drums which is accompanied by carnivorous, beary growl (the words he puts out are totally understandable) and transparent lead guitar work. It's not clogged at all, and not very raw either. Its backbone is harder than these steel skeletons on the cover. Lyrics-wise, Vader continued their fight against religions, and you can count me in Vader's troops (am I a stormtrooper then, eh?!).
As mentioned already, one thing I wanted this to be was longer in duration (it's just under 15 minutes in length, plus 2 minutes out of that is consumed by electronic music) and the other thing is that I really miss some great Vader-ization of some classic metal song like they've often done on some of their previous mini albums. But how it ended up being is absolutely essential to the band's fans, and a nice foretaste for those who (still?!) haven't scoured the band.
Rating: 9 (out of 10) ratings explained
Reviewed by Lane
03/04/2026 01:12
