Vader
And Blood was Shed in Warsaw
Metal Mind
The Force is strong with this one
My first live experience with Vader was in 1993 (with Dismember and Deicide), and it took all but 60 seconds before the stage monitors were smoking due to an electrical malfunction. We romantically thought Vader’s Iron Curtain might was so great that puny American amps were no match for songs like “Final Massacre.” (Ah, the good old days.) Anyway, Vader soldiered on at half volume—blame Deicide!—and still kicked heaps of arse—so much so that we all bought shirts. Well, an eternity later and the Poles still sound as good, if not better, than bands half their age.
Want proof? Besides seven consistently good—even classic in the case of The Ultimate Incantation and De Profundis—albums, Vader have issued an equal amount of live albums and VHS/DVDs showing that before Behemoth, Decapitated, Yattering, et al. it was Piotr Wiwczarek’s crew who bravely carried the torch from Olsztyn to the rest of world. Which brings us to And Blood Was Shed in Warsaw.
Not unlike 2004’s Night of the Apocalypse, Metal Mind thinks songs about Sumerian gods, necromancy and other nerdy occult topics deserve seven cameras, a light show stolen from the last David Gilmour tour and Bruckheimer-style editing to get the point across. I certainly don’t mind—basically, it’s Vader in speaker-kill 5.1 with a seizure-inducing light show—and nor should you with four tracks pulled from Impressions in Blood, three from The Art of War EP and De Profundis, two each Litany and Black to the Blind, and singles from The Beast, Revelations and The Ultimate Incantation. The sound, as is the case with all Metal Mind products, is exceptional, and the extras, while conventional, won’t bore you to tears; the song/video to “Sword of the Witcher” is like if Vader interpreted “Lucretia My Reflection.” Expecting And Blood Was Shed in Warsaw to not kick heaps of arse is like expecting nü-death metal not to sound like eighteenth-rate Suffocation clones. Some things are just a given. —Chris Dick
