VADER, ORIGIN, INHUMAN CONDITION

Lee's Palace, Sunday, February 11, 2024 Toronto, Canada

A special review written by Kenneth Gallant and photographed by Kim Barda

Recently I had the opportunity to venture over to Lee's Palace and take in the 40th Anniversary show of Polish death metal legends Vader. Joining them on this tour are technical/brutal death metal band Origin and old school death metal band Inhuman Condition.

It's safe to say the evening was a major treat for death metal enthusiasts and I can't stress enough how good of a time I had overall. The doors opened at 7pm and people started filing in sparsely; however it didn't turn into a large crowd at all. I was a bit surprised by that and maybe the show being on a Sunday night with the Super Bowl going on at the same time probably had something to do with it. Regardless, I was super keen on seeing Vader in a live venue to perform songs from a remarkable forty year career; so I was all jazzed up.

Inhuman Condition took to the stage first and I was giddy as hell. This is a band with quite a pedigree from around the death metal genre and really these guys need no introduction, but I'm going to bring up some names anyhow. Firstly, there's bassist Terry Butler whose currently a part of Denial Fiend, Obituary and as you all know was a member of both Death and Massacre. The man's a legend as far as I am concerned and joining him are Taylor Nordberg (guitar) and Jeramie Kling (drums). Both musicians I know well from The Absence, and Taylor has just recently joined Deicide, so this is a very impressive trio of musicians.

The band played nine songs in about thirty minutes and included some favs like "Recycled Hate", "Panic Prayer", "Euphoriphobia", "I'm Now the Monster", "The Neck Snap" and "Tyrantula" from their two studio full length releases. I think the highlight for many was the inclusion of the cover of Blue Oyster Cult's "Godzilla" that got a rousing response from the fans. Overall though, the set was solid and it got everyone going right from the hop, so there was some good vibes going around.

When Origin stormed the stage, vocalist Jason Keyser ordered the moshpit to start up even before the very first note was played. Obviously this band feeds off the energy from the crowd and got things off quickly with "Expulsion of Fury" from 2011's Entity. I can't say I am a fan, and to be honest I didn't know most of the songs they played live, but it was nine in total and done in about 30 minutes. The crowd seemed happy and in this case mission accomplished.

Once they left the stage, the crew worked effortlessly to set-up the main act of the evening. I was pumped for the festivities to begin, and when Vader took to the stage I had goose bumps. The smoke machine filled the small space right up and the band came out; led by main man Piotr (Peter) Wiwczarek. They opened immediately with "Decapitated Saints" from Welcome to the Morbid Reich and I was so pleased with this choice. Arguably Reich is my favourite Vader album, so I was tickled pink to hear this song. The crowd were also into it and tone was set right away.

They followed that with "The Wrath" from 1994's Sothis to a sea of head's banging and bodies moshing. I also liked how Peter took a little time in between songs to announce the album and year it came from. Call it a brief history lesson if you will, but it was neat to set it up like that and then proceed to bang it out right after. I'm not going to go through every song played live, but they jammed to "Chaos", Vicious Circle", "Dark Age" and "The Crucified Ones" to full affect. The crowd loved it and even brought out a Polish National flag which Peter greatly acknowledged.

The set was really tight overall. Although, Peter stopped twice at different intervals to address some minor technical glitches with the guitars. It didn't really hamper the show at all and they went straight back into blitzing the audience with heaping amounts of death metal goodness. We got to hear "Sothis", "Back to the Blind" and "Wings" from 2000's Litany. "Helleluyah (God is Dead)" from 2006's Impressions in Blood" was wicked live and "Never Say my Name" from 2009's Necropolis was another banger in the set I loved hearing live.

Before the concert ended, Peter graciously thanked the crowd for coming out and announced the final two songs to end off the night. First we got "Triumph of Death" from another favourite album of mine with 2014's Tibi Et Igni, then proceeded with "Shock and Awe" from their last album Solitude in Madness to complete the ninety minute set. The Imperial March from the famous John Williams (Star Wars) score played, so you know the show was now over.

This was a great night to be a death metal fan and everyone who made it out was treated to some great music. Vader played a total of twenty songs and my neck was hurting a bit after doing so much headbanging, but I am a metal head after all.

I also want to give special thanks to Kim Barda from the Metal Pit for graciously providing me some photos of the show to use in my review. It's much appreciated!

Kenneth Gallant, HMS

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