Blood / Reign Forever World

You have to hand it to Vader for being one of the most consistent underground acts throughout the 1990s and 2000s, the Polish group churning out album after album (after album) of commendable, no-frills death metal, while most members of the species insist on utilizing the same off-the-rack riffs ad nauseum. Not to say Vader ever broke any new ground with its Morbid Angel and Reign in Blood worship, but the Poles' songwriting skills often vault the group into the upper quadrant of the DM genre. That said, this release is a hodgepodge conglomeration of leftovers culled from imports, '03's Reign in Blood EP, and '01's Reign Forever World 10-tracker. It's not exactly an ideal introduction to Vader's precision bloodshed (see Litany or Revelations), even if the first four tracks, "Shape-Shifting" (old-school dive-bomber death metal, meticulously arranged), "We Wait" (mid-tempo sludge peppered with thrashy Kreator riffs) and "To the Fallen Rise" and "Son of Fire" (two minutes each of unwavering, white-hot Slayer blasts), are terrific. Otherwise, Blood/Reign Forever World is a somewhat inconsistent jaunt through diehard-only fodder: Two random live tracks; entertaining but novel Mayhem, Destruction, and Judas Priest covers; a few leftover studio cuts; and a pointless instrumental. Still, this disc successfully achieved its goal — namely, holding over diehard fans in the (approximately) six minutes between full-fledged Vader releases.