The Ultimate Incantation

Vader may have taken a while to emerge from their home country (they formed in 1983, but didn’t release this album until 1992), but they arrived fully formed. The thrashy death metal songs on this album sit comfortably alongside anything and everything they’ve done since; only the relative thinness of the production marks The Ultimate Incantation as an early effort. Songs like “The Crucified Ones,” “Decapitated Saints” (which they re-recorded on 2011’s Welcome To The Morbid Reich), and the epic “Reign Carrion,” with its thunderous double bass drumming from Krzysztof “Doc” Raczkowski and ominous/epic horror-movie synth accents, are as strong as anything they’d ever write, and while guitarist/vocalist Piotr “Peter” Wiwczarek’s vocals are occasionally fed through slightly cheesy effects, his overall delivery — like a demonically possessed grizzly bear — is dramatic and compelling.