Polish death metal legends VADER have returned with their 16th studio album, Solitude In Madness.
Never one to rest or relax, VADER have done it all over the course of their 37-year history. From playing super-aggressive thrash under the watchful eye of Communist Poland and signing a worldwide deal with popular UK indie Earache Records to touring the globe – after the dissolution of the Warsaw Pact in 1991, of course – and enjoying a near-maniacal fanbase, there’s no stopping the Piotr “Peter” Wiwczarek-led outfit. Proof of that lies in the exceptionally great Solitude in Madness, where speed and power are back as the driving factors in VADER’s fiendish yet proficient death metal. Further evidence can be found in the differences that separate previous pounder The Empire from Solitude in Madness.
Traditionally, VADER would’ve gone to Hertz Studio in Białystok, Poland. What started with Impressions in Blood (2006) lasted all the way to Dark Age (2017) at Hertz with the Wiesławski bros. Still, for Solitude in Madness, they went outside their comfort zone to Grindstone Studios in Suffolk, England, where they teamed up with one-stop-shop Scott Atkins to engineer, produce, mix, and master for four weeks in summer 2019. Wiwczarek described the experience as ‘’no pressure’’ and working with Atkins ‘’a real pleasure.” Musically, VADER haven’t sounded this vicious, this aggressive, this out for blood since Litany. That they’re 20 years older is borderline unreal, but Wiwczarek’s always ready for VADER’s next steps. If it had to be in England with a British producer, then so be it.
There are also some events planned around the group’s various anniversaries – De Profundis turns 25, The Beast turns 16, and Necropolis turns 11- which will result in anniversary-branded tours. Nuclear Blast has plans to re-issue De Profundis, and there are further designs to press specific compact disc-only albums to vinyl.
