Vader

Vader originated in 1983 under a name drawn straight from Star Wars' Sith lord and quickly established themselves as Poland's leading death metal act. Countless roster shifts followed, yet vocalist and guitarist Piotr "Peter" Wiwczarek remains the lone founding member still aboard. Their early path began in power metal before cycling through thrash and speed metal on the way to an ever-mutating, relentlessly savage death metal approach. A decade of Eastern European roadwork yielded only self-issued material, most notably the Morbid Reich cassette that moved roughly 10,000 copies and earned the group an Earache contract for its first official studio album, 1994's The Ultimate Incantation. Persistent touring and label friction prompted further moves; Metal Blade became home with the breakthrough 2000 release Litany, while Nuclear Blast took over for 2009's Necropolis. Issued 33 years after formation, 2016's The Empire enjoyed such strong reception that the band stayed on the road globally for two full years, after which the 16th studio album, Solitude in Madness, appeared in 2020.

Formed in 1983, the band worked the European death and thrash scene while circulating demos through tape-trading networks. Their 1990 demo Morbid Reich gained major underground traction and produced a 1992 Earache deal, making Vader the first death metal band from behind the Iron Curtain to secure an international contract outside Poland. The same year brought The Ultimate Incantation, which resonated widely in metal circles. Extensive touring alongside Bolt Thrower, Grave, Deicide and others carried their performances to American audiences. Departure from Earache the following year led to Sothis on Repulse Records and the live set The Darkest Age: Live '93 on Baron Records.

Continued road activity persisted amid waning death metal popularity and an unstable label situation until a 1995 Impact Records agreement restored a steady release cadence. Hammerheart Records reissued the Necrolust and Morbid Reich demos on CD in 1998 while the archival collection Reborn in Chaos marked the group's strongest commercial showing to date; that year also saw a live album, the Kingdom mini-album, a VHS video and a new Metal Blade contract. By 1999 Vader were supporting Slayer and mounting their first American headlining trek.

Litany and the Reign Forever World EP arrived via Metal Blade in 2000, the former earning a Fryderyk nomination. Revelations followed in 2002 and likewise received a Fryderyk nod, as did Impressions in Blood (2006), Necropolis (2009) and the Nuclear Blast-issued Welcome to the Morbid Reich (2011). The last of those won Heavy Metal Album of the Year and entered charts in seven countries including the United States. The Go to Hell EP preceded the tenth full-length, Tibi et Igni. In 2016 the long-awaited Empire appeared; its two-year world tour prompted a 25th-anniversary reconception of the debut album that was sold exclusively on the road in handmade sleeves whose liner notes misspelled two track titles. Following a hiatus, the five-track Thy Messenger EP surfaced in 2019 ahead of Solitude in Madness in 2020.