Welcome To The Morbid Reich

Vader mainman Piotr “Peter” Wiwczarek was clearly feeling creatively rejuvenated in 2011, after recruiting the brilliant guitarist Wacław “Vogg” Kiełtyka of Decapitated as a live ringer from 2008-2010, because Welcome To The Morbid Reich is the best Vader album since 2002’s Revelations. It’s not that it represents a major departure from their previous work — the floor-punching riffs, blasting drums, and Wiwczarek’s hoarse, bloody-throated roars are all present — but the songs are just have a little bit more energy. (“Only Hell Knows” flashes by in just 2:14.) There’s a Carpathian grandeur to the orchestral “I Am Who Feasts Upon Your Soul” that brings to mind Dimmu Borgir, while “Don’t Rip the Beast’s Heart Out” features some genuinely shredtastic guitar, and it ends with two bonus tracks — cover versions of the Vibrators’ “Troops of Tomorrow” and Extreme Noise Terror’s “Raping the Earth.”