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Category: Wes Benscoter

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After releasing one of the best selling demos in the genre, and releasing an excellent debut on Earache Records, Poland’s Vader had to prove their initial success wasn’t a fluke. In the intervening three years they released a live album and an EP while they prepared their second album, the first to feature all new and original material. On its second album things fell in place for Polish death metal combo Vader as they honed their sound into perfection. “De Profundis” is the template of which all future albums would be based, and a yardstick against which Polish death metal at large is often measured.

One of the first things to notice in the three years since the debut is how tight-knit and together the band has become. This second album largely does away with the thrash metal architecture of “The Ultimate Incantation” and places a great prominence on the Morbid Angel influence that already loomed over its debut. What remains intact from the debut is the heavily Slayer influenced riffing and the dynamic range that is now integrated into a faster, leaner and overall more percussive framework. While the album easily matches Suffocation’s “Pierced From Within” in terms of intensity and propulsion Vader is more direct and compact in comparison to that lauded band’s assault. Vader’s material is hardly what you’d call simple or straightforward by any reasonable measure, but they refuse to play technical or complex just for the sake of being so. In a sense they is the European counterpart to the enduring US death metal band Cannibal Corpse. Vader is about emotion, and no record displays this more brilliantly than “De Profundis”.

Vibrant and lively, even with the significantly bass-heavier but still bare bones production the songwriting of Wiwczarek and Raczkowski reached a peak. Presented here is a style of utterly relentless death metal clearly rooted in European thrash metal but with an American sense of urgency. Once again the album was promoted with a promotional video, and for this album ‘Incarnation’ was chosen. A wise choice if you consider that this track brings together everything this album is known for in a radio friendly three minute cut. As always with Vader the leads/solos and drumming are central to each of the cuts. Wiwczarek and Raczkowski shine on each of their respective instruments, especially Wiwczarek who besides doing vocals handled rhythm guitar, leads/solos and bass guitar duties. He is the embodiment of a hands-on approach. Where at this time a lot of death metal frontmen were moving towards a deeper, more guttural vocal style, Wiwczarek retains his throatier and more human approach while intensifying his overall delivery. All aspects have been improved in comparison to the debut that was released three years prior. Vader was about to go places in a few years.

All of the lyrics were written by Pawel Wasilewski, except ‘Silent Empire’ was written by Pawel Frelik while ‘Blood Of Kingu’, ‘Revolt’ and ‘Reborn In Flames’ were all written by Wiwczarek. ‘Reborn In Flames’ is in fact a re-recorded track from the 1989 “Necrolust” demo tape and the one but last of that era to appear on an official studio outing. All the music was written by Wiwczarek. Vader is one of the few to have most of its lyrics written by people not involved with the band or its associates. The practice is continued here but remains in place to this very day. As a result a lot of the early releases of this band are steeped in occult, thelemic and esoteric subject matter before it was popularized by that other famous Polish death metal band Behemoth, and to a lesser degree by the significantly more underground unit Lost Soul. Liner notes detail the meaning for each of the cuts presents on the release. For the first time the band is credited in producing itself, although that in truth means Piotr ‘Peter’ Wiwczarek. He would handle all production duties (along with the engineer) from this point onward.

“De Profundis” marks the first appearance of long-time bass guitarist Leszek ‘Shambo’ Rakowski and a returning Jaroslaw ‘China’ Labieniec. Although both being credited for partaking in the recordings it was the duo of Piotr ‘Peter’ Wiwczarek and Krzysztof ‘Doc’ Raczkowski (drums) who laid down all instruments in the studio. Wes Benscoter was chosen to provide the fantastic artwork for the album, and the band recorded at Studio Modern Sound in Gdynia, Poland. The album was released originally through Croon Records, but saw several reissues over the years by Pavement Music, Avalon/Marquee, Conquest Music, System Shock and Metal Mind Productions, all of which often added the ‘I Feel You’ cover from Depeche Mode or an assortment of other bonus content. The album sold approximately 17,000 units in two weeks in Poland during its release, and to this day it remains one of best and most loved death metal albums by a wide margin.

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Somewhere in the four years in between “Seasons In the Abyss” and “Divine Intervention” something was lost within Slayer. For the first time the band had spent actual time on pre-production. Where Slayer once sounded irrevocably evil here they sound… mundane and ordinary. It is an unexpected and jarring change that left fans confused. The most evil thrash/speed metal band in the world had apparently lost its way, and much of its identity. This change becomes more apparent by the band’s change in wardrobe. Instead of wearing leather, inverted crosses, spikes and denim Slayer now wore hockey jerseys, sunglasses and tennis shoes as they opted for a more urban look. Kerry King shaved his head bald, and Slayer were desperately looking to hang with the kids that loved Pantera, Machine Head and the very divisive “Chaos AD” by once-relevant Brazilian combo Sepultura. Not even a divine intervention could save this “Divine Intervention”.

This album is the recording debut for drummer Paul Bostaph, who cut his teeth with fellow thrash metal pioneers Forbidden, and it is as smooth as one can reasonably imagine given the unfortunate circumstances of how he came into the band. In fact Bostaph’s take-no-prisoners attitude behind the kit is exactly what gives much of these fairly dull cuts their edge. The drum intro to ‘Killing Fields’ or ‘Serenity In Murder’ is equal to original drummer Dave Lombardo in terms of intensity and power. It is obvious that Paul Bostaph has a different style, and although he uses similar techniques as Lombardo this is a different Slayer. As the second longest-serving Slayer drummer the cards were stacked against Bostaph, but he didn’t let the animosity get to him. The band was grasping at straws to hang on to the sound they worked so hard on to perfect. In the face of a changing taste in the mainstream metal scene, and the apparent need to appeal to a different demographic in terms of audience, compromises were made – and not all for the best. Slayer was a full of itself, and over-confident that anything would work.

The album starts off strong with the rolling drumbeat and kickdrum action of ‘Killing Fields’. The track slows down soon, and Araya’s vocals are far more controlled than ever before. The riffing is kind of there, and it isn’t. These mostly are characterless groove riffs and stolen metallic hardcore riffs. Araya’s bass playing is more interesting than the riffs it supports, thankfully the killer acceleration redeems a lot. As always, the solo’ing is the highlight of the track, and it is no different here. ‘Sex. Murder. Art.’ sounds like a surprise ending to the opening track, but is actually a song on its own despite being barely over 2 minutes long. ‘Fictional Reality’ passes by without a highlight to speak of, and ‘Dittohead’ is another explosive short song that is so energetic that it is hard to miss. The ‘Dittohead’ music video has Slayer playing in a crowded basement, and it is filled with news footage. ‘Serenity In Murder’ is much more colorful on all fronts, and has some minor production values worth mentioning. The band appears to be playing in a deeply red colored stripper booth, of all things. Bostaph’s drumming matches Lombardo’s rhythmic density, but doesn’t possess the same creativity in terms of fills. The title track is a dull groove number that starts with the most enunthusiastic opening riff imagineable. Was this the same Slayer that penned “Reign In Blood”? You wouldn’t say so from hearing this slugfest of two-note groove riffs and directionless plodding.

‘Circle Of Beliefs’ is a good track ruined by processed vocals, which thankfully are abandoned after the first verse but return later on. As always the solo’ing is superb. ‘SS-3’ is, like the title track, inspired in equal amounts by the rising groove metal – and Seattle grunge sound, and it is none the better for it. Bostaph’s spirited drumming is a plus, but it does little to elevate a track hampered by subpar riffing.  The studio experiments with the vocals don’t help matters in the slightest. ‘Serenity In Murder’ is another short blaster that gets by on the grace of its abundant energy in the opening section, and the fact that it was a video track. The clean vocals in the beginning are nothing short of embarrassing, and if it weren’t for the great solo’ing this would be another throwaway track on an album that wasn’t strong to begin with. ‘213’ has a clean guitar introduction, and has the construction and feel of a power-ballad initially. There are more semi-clean and spoken vocals towards the latter half of the track. Closing track ‘Mind Control’ is pretty similar to ‘Killing Fields’ but it passes by without any real highlight to speak of. The drumming and solo’ing are great, but that’s about it. As a closing track it is anticlimactic and uneventful compared to earlier Slayer records.

Instead of churning evil thrash/speed metal riffs there are a lot of meandering groove metal riffs that borrow from the metallic hardcore sound that was all the rage at the time. The overall tempo is lower, but there are a good variety of slow and fast songs. Tom Araya’s vocals are toned down, and there’s a greater reliance on softer vocal cadences to fit the lower tempo. Araya doesn’t sound as out-of-control as on prior records. “Divine Intervention” follows the architectural template of “Seasons Of the Abyss” but misses the vital songwriting components to make it match its illustrious predecessor. The band has grown into a comfortable state of familiarity with its style. As a result of this, they have become complacent and content with itself. “Divine Intervention” shows no progress in terms of songwriting or instrumental skill from prior records, but seems to tread water in a confusing spot that isn’t here nor there. It does what it is supposed to do, but its goals aren’t set exactly high in the first place.

As per usual the album was steeped in controversy with ‘213’ referring to the apartment number where notorious cannibal/serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer tortured his victims, ‘SS-3’ concerned SS-hangman Reinhard Heydrich and ‘Dittohead’ formed a partial tribute to Republican fearmonger Rush Limbaugh. In 1998 the album was banned in Germany due to the lyrics of ‘SS-3’, ‘Circle of Beliefs’, ‘Serenity in Murder’, ‘213’ and ‘Mind Control’. The fascination with World War II and Nazi Germany previously got the band steeped in controversy with ‘Angel Of Death’ off of “Reign In Blood”, yet here the band unphased continue to draw from that black page in history. This is unsurprising as lead guitarist Jeff Hanneman is a collector Nazi war medals and memorabilia. Further media attention came from the Sepultura-Slayer feud after Max Cavalera accused Slayer of attracting neo-nazis and skinheads. Slayer replied by calling Sepultura “low life cocksuckers”. At least the record was partly redeemed by the amazing artwork of Wes Benscoter and the inlay that featured the bloody, logo carved arm of a particular obsessed fan of the band.

Infamous for its troublesome production that saw the band switch studios and producers multiple times during the sessions, it is the recording debut for long suffering San Francisco drummer Paul Bostaph.  The sessions were tracked at Ocean Way Recording in Hollywood, California and Sound City Studio in Van Nuys, California. It is a mixed bag of a number of truly good songs, two all too short singles and a bunch of songs that appear to be written to cater to a certain crowd rather than what the band wanted to write. It is a haphazard and confused record that can’t decide what it wants to be. Written equally between King and Hanneman, it is King’s material that defines this record. King’s confused writing and desperate appeasing to the groove - and grunge crowds is a signpost for the band’s future decline into mallcore wiggerdom and irrelevance. Slayer did not escape the fate that swallowed Metallica whole. “Divine Intervention” saw Slayer coping with the 90s, and undecided whether to stay loyal to their original sound/concept, or molding it to fit the then-current popular taste. As it turns out the album does a bit of both, but it is mostly remembered as the death certificate for the once unchampioned masters of extreme thrash – and speed metal.