Vader Thy Messenger

Polish extreme metal veterans VADER will release a new EP titled "Thy Messenger" in late spring or early summer. The effort will contain four of the five songs that were recorded over a week-long a period in January and February at the Hertz Studio in Białystok under the supervision of the Wiesławski Brothers. The cover art was painted by Wes Benscoter, who previously worked with VADER on the "De Profundis" LP and has collaborated with such bands as SLAYER, KREATOR and SINISTER. A new full VADER album will be recorded later this year for a tentative fall release.

VADER's latest studio album, "The Empire", was released in November 2016 via Nuclear Blast. The cover artwork for the CD was created by acclaimed artist Joe Petagno, who has previously worked with PINK FLOYD, LED ZEPPELIN, MOTÖRHEAD, MARDUK, ILLDISPOSED and SODOM.

In a 2017 interview with Metal Assault, VADER mastermind Piotr "Peter" Wiwczarek spoke about the slightly thrashier musical direction of "The Empire" compared to some of the band's recent efforts.

"I can't say what the reason is; it's just natural," he said. "When I record the new albums, there's a lot of spontaneous work done in the studio, and I never really know how the album is going to be like until it's done. And maybe because I was listening to more older stuff, the same stuff, the same music I was listening to years ago in the '80s. I found the box of old cassettes and demo tapes that were trading with bands in the '80s. So maybe 'The Empire' is kind of like a “compilation” of something real old, like you call it thrash metal or heavy metal, along with something which is typical for VADER, with blast beats, the blasting parts of death metal. And something more may be. The influence is all around, happening at an early time. There was nothing to prepare before the studio time. I never know that the album was going to be like this, rather I just get some feelings from it, you know? But what I do know from the past, I always change something in the studio, always something happening around, with new ideas, or changing songs right in the studio. So until something is recorded officially, I can't say how it's going to be like. But definitely 'The Empire' is the most different album, if we're talking about the songs. You can find different songs on it, and it's still pretty much like VADER, but they're different."

1. Grand Deceiver
2. Litany
3. Emptiness
4. Despair
5. Steeler (Judas Priest cover)