Does anyone remember the time around 1983 when VADER still played heavy/speed metal? Hardly, at that time they were touring the backwaters of Poland. Three or four years later, however, VADER reformed and with a new line-up shifted their sound into a death metal character with the distinctive, often Slayer-tinged thrash riffing that is still significant for them today. Much of this transformation was aided by legendary drummer Docent († 2005), who kicked the Poles into a frenzied pace and drove their aggressive delivery relentlessly forward. The video for "The Darkest Age", often aired on the then still metal indulging MTV, from their debut album "The Ultimate Incarnation" (1992) released on Earache, was a turning point. The video made them famous worldwide almost overnight, and the subsequent, still revered albums "De Profundis" or "Litany" (Metal Blade) are unwaveringly, and rightly, enshrined in the golden fund of extreme metal.
