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Impressions in Blood was a fucking monster of a Death Metal album and the best possible return to form after the somewhat lackluster The Beast. As we all know by now, following up a completely killer album is just as, if not harder, than composing that killer. Necropolis is Vader's newest (and by my count 11th) full-length, and the good news dear friends is that they have brought the metal in a way that only Vader can.

Vader fans can really effectively stop reading now, order the disc, and kick back content in the knowledge that Piotr and his crew have dropped another lead weight of pure Polish DM. Everyone else should wake the fuck up and smell the Vader already – where the fuck have you been for the last 15 years? "Devilizer" kicks straight in, no bullshit, no intro, and you are immediately in Vaderland, with some crunchy mid-paced DM pushed forward by some precise drumming and wrapped with Piotr's unique and angry vocals. Let's face it, there is nothing new here, this is pure unadulterated Vader, but why oh why in the fuck would anyone want anything else? Necropolis is not as straight up and unforgiving as Impressions… was, and the production is not as crisp and precise being a little more low key, but the riffs (oh my Satan the RIFFS!) are there, summoning forth our dark master to possess our souls and force us into a frenzy of headbanging and solo moshing that only Vader can inspire. New axeman Vogg (of the late, great Decapitated) brings some great melody and intensity to Vader with his solos complementing Pitor's Slayer-esque abuses very nicely (there is just not enough assaulting of the whammy these days). The one thing I feel Necropolis does better than any of the recent Vader albums, is that it has a much more live sound and feel to it, much less clinical than Impressions… I had the very great fortune of catching these guys when they came to Sydney in 2007(?) and this is pretty much what they sounded like – loud and pummeling, blasting and riffing their way through track after track of face-melting Death Metal.

Necropolis isn't going to change your life or give you deeper insight into the nature of reality, but it is going to get your head banging and your limbs flailing with its driving metal and urgent blasting (when a band calls one of their songs "Blast" and then proceeds to do so for two minutes, you know it is OK to touch yourself). This is Death Metal the way Satan intended and anyone who says otherwise is probably batting for the other side.