Blood/Reign Forever World is not VADER’s new album, but rather a compilation of the band’s two most recent EP’s on one disc featuring nearly an hour of previously unreleased (in America) material, cover songs, and some live tracks. The first two songs from Blood see the band welcoming former BEHEMOTH bassist/DIES IRAE frontman Novy to the fold. Opening track, “Shape-Shifting,” delivers relentless, aggressive death metal as only VADER knows how. Drummer Doc’s furious blasting away counters well with the band’s crushing mid-tempo breakdowns. “We Wait” explores slower territory with more groove-oriented riffing similar to their work on the Kingdom EP. The remaining tracks from the Blood EP (recorded during the Revelations sessions) have VADER doing what they do best, unleashing precise, no-holds-barred death metal. Reign Forever World was originally released in 2001 and while the band even did a U.S. tour to support it, the full EP is only now seeing a state side release. All three of the band’s originals for Reign Forever World cut through with clarity and precision and actually have a better sound than most of the material on Revelations. They cut loose with covers of JUDAS PRIEST and DESTRUCTION which showcase the their “fun” side. The highlight of the cover material is their rendition of MAYHEM’s “Freezing Moon” in which the band combines the sinister atmospherics of black metal with death metal’s crushing bottom end. The compilation closes with some punishing live material and two Japanese bonus tracks from the Litany sessions. VADER’s latest collection succeeds in offering something to their faithful fans in order to tide them over until the band’s next onslaught, as well as serving as a solid introduction to new fans interested in exploring Poland’s premiere death metal act. (Metal Blade Records)