As always, any time Poland’s greatest death metal band release any sort of new recording is a time for rejoicing. Let there be no misunderstanding – Blood is more of the same thing that Vader has been putting out for years: simple, crushing death metal that’s the Terminator version of Slayer. And anything less would be a disappointment.

Relatively speaking, Blood is a bit slower... certainly a lot slower than the last Vader MCD, Reign Forever World (but you still get lots and lots of speed). Speaking of which, the US version of Blood comes packaged with Reign Forever World on one CD. If you already have Reign..., don’t get the US version, as you’ll have one fewer tracks, in this case a cover of a Thin Lizzy song. Also, the artwork, featuring both MCD covers mushed together on one CD booklet, looks bad. If you have neither MCDs, it would behoove you to pick up the US version, as the extra track really isn’t all that great. It does have guitar work that is unique within the Vader universe, but the song gets kind of old after three listens. (the item in the Maelstrom store is the import version.)

There is something rather odd about Blood. For some reason the song "When Darkness Calls," which is on the Revelations full-length, is also on this recording, even though the song is a year old. Aren’t songs taken from full-length albums supposed to come *before* said album, in order to be like a tease? What’s more confusing about this is how the song "Son of Fire," only available on the European digipak version of Revelations, is not the song that the band picked. Certainly the song they did pick is better, but "Son of Fire" is a fine Vader tune (after all, they all basically do the same thing), and far fewer people have heard it.

Anyway, any Vader fan will be pleased with Blood, although listening to the US version of this release reveals that Reign Forever World is noticeable superior. (8/10 for Blood, 8.5/10 for Reign Forever World)