LIVE REVIEW: Vader @ The Underworld, London

There are very few bands who could conceive and promote a tour celebrating the anniversaries of three of their landmark releases. VADER, who have been active since 1983 and due to release their sixteenth album this year, are among the very few. De Profundis, their mid-nineties classic, celebrates it’s 25th anniversary; Litany, their first major-label release, reaches its 20th anniversary; the infamous The Art of War EP, meanwhile, arrives at it’s 15th year. Tonight, the Polish hellraisers arrive in London to deliver their career-spanning setlist, bringing Japanese death metal veterans DEFILED and Greek thrashers CHRONOSPHERE along with them, for a Monday night extreme metal bonanza. Distorted Sound were there to help greet them.

It wouldn’t be unfair to describe CHRONOSPHERE as something of a of a throwback act. In their sound and in their appearance, the band are evocative of an authentic 80s thrash metal group exploring the boundaries between NWOBHM, speed metal, and (to a far lesser extent) hardcore punk. Matching tight red jeans, incessant triplets, staccato vocals, tight and highly technical guitar work – we’ve seen it all before. Whatever CHRONOSPHERE might lack in stylistic originality however, they more than make up for in their execution, which is flawless. There is definitely something to be said for younger bands keeping this old-school sound and image alive, which is arguably at the root of extreme metal as we now know it, and there are very few bands out there who can do it better than CHRONOSPHERE have done it tonight. You simply cannot fault the enthused delivery of their latest single All In, which stands out as the highlight of their set this evening.

Rating: 7/10

You might be forgiven for simply overlooking DEFILED when flicking through sleeves in the record shop. While they have been active since the early nineties, their first full-length release Erupted Wrath arrived as late at 1999; well past the death metal boom, and only available in their native Japan – not a well-known death metal hotbed, by any means. They are, in that respect, the victims of circumstance. As overlooked as they might be, DEFILED play a thoughtful and intricate take on brutal death metal, one which puts younger, tempo-and-breakdown fixated bands to shame. They derive their brutality from down-tuned guitars, sparing use of fuzzboxes, pleasingly organic drumming and virtuosic guttural vocals a la Chris Barnes. Perhaps it’s the mix, perhaps it’s their relative obscurity, perhaps it’s just the wrong crowd, but DEFILED don’t quite seize their audience this evening. There is a somewhat drained, soporific atmosphere; ultimately conducive to their style, but at odds with the high-energy in the room tonight. For the appreciative few, their setlist focuses on the recently released (and superb) Infinite Regress, but with a disappointing lack of older tracks to assert their legacy. The band close on the short-sharp-shock of Towards Inevitable Ruin – hopefully, not a portent of things to come.

Rating: 5/10

By the time the Polish veterans take to the stage, the Tyskie has been flowing for several hours, and a jubilant Monday night crowd is here to meet them. VADER have an inimitable stage presence, best realised within the confines of smaller venues like The Underworld, and tonight they are very much in their element performing just metres from their diehard fans. Front and centre and beaming proudly is vocalist, guitarist, and last remaining founding member Piotr Wiwczarek. Flanking him are two more veterans of the Polish metal scene, Spider and Hal, with James Stewart (also of BLOODSHOT DAWN) drumming. From the storming introduction of Silent Empire onwards, VADER seize the room. In a scene which has gradually become more and more nuanced, and with stylistic trends emerging and evaporating, VADER are living proof that there will always be an appetite for their distinguished brand of musical aggression; relentless fretwork, bellowing vocals and technical drumming. “What a place, what a people!” smiles Piotr. “It’s going to be another crazy Monday night in London,” he promises, launching into live-staple Black To The Blind.

VADER’s uncompromising formula, which accentuates the studded-leather speed of JUDAS PRIEST and adds to it SLAYER’s razor-sharp riffing and divebomb dual solos, is frankly exhausting. There is no letting up in VADER’s hour long war of attrition. Nor, for that matter, does the enthusiasm of their fans falter. The movement, the heat, the rain of perspiration emanating from the ceiling: the largely expatriated crowd, whom Piotr will often address directly in their native tongue, have given their countrymen quite the reception. While the setlist focuses on the anniversary releases, there is a healthy mixture of new and old favourites punctuating the evening. Despair and Shock & Awe from the forthcoming Solitude In Madness are as frenzied as they are brief, while first-album throwback Dark Age is performed with newfound vigour. Rounding the evening off with a pair of covers, Steeler and Raining Blood are given the VADER treatment in a self-effacing display of the band’s musical heritage. VADER are one of those bands that never seem to stop touring, and everyone tonight leaves happily in the knowledge that they’ll soon be back to do it all again.

Rating: 8/10