Vader - Future of the Past
Review: 1. Outbreak of Evil/Sodom - Faithful cover reproduces this song more solidly than original and as such makes it more mechanical, almost more evil, but with the Vader energy more aggressive and speed-thrills rippingly enjoyable.
2. Flag of Hate/Kreator - Excellent cover much in the spirit of the original with some textures restructured to make song more coherent in newer senses of metal music. New vocal work expands upon original concepts to a more plausible degree.
3. Storm of Stress/ Terrorizer - Representative cover, playing grindcore like a death metal band but it works out. The precision of Vader starts to hurt them on material this simple.
4. Death Metal/Possessed - Much as the Cannibal Corpse cover of Exorcist brought it to light for listeners familiar with the clearer-cut, less ragged sound of modern death metal, Vader take this original tune and put it into a more refined arrangement for display as what it is. Some might hint that the "evil" is lost, but the design of the song (and its universality and progeneritorship in the genre) burns through in a high-speed replication.
5. Fear of Napalm/Terrorizer - Very pat cover which shows how easy this faithful cover must have been for a death metal band with this much accuracy in their instrumental delivery.
6. Merciless Death/Dark Angel - Sounds similar to what I've heard this band produce, but having not heard the original I can only say it seems as rigidly pre-learned as the other songs here.
7. Dethroned Emperor/Celtic Frost - Slightly stepped up cover of this classic Frost tune, expanded with the mastery of techniques inherent in modern death metal.
8. Silent Scream/Slayer - Reasonable cover of this song revealing much of Vader's inspiration from this band. There is elucidation of the core of Vader's sound here; the later Slayeresque combination of long phrases of vibratto resonance with blast-percussive, stop-start styling that took what speed metal had and made it much more extreme.
9. We Are the League/The Anti-Nowhere League - Seems to be a pop song, and not having heard the original I can only say the song holds together.
10. I.F.Y/Depeche Mode - "I Feel You," as this song was originally titled, grooves nicely like a pop-rock combo song but holds little interest or familiarity for this reviewer.
11. Black Sabbath - The same track Vader had on Sothis, this cover almost manages the vocal duties inherent in this song but instrumentally manages a beautiful cover.