Style: death metal
Thoughts: I heard a story once. It was an album that was meant to be about forty minutes long. The drummer came in and laid down the drum tracks and there was thirty minutes of music to record over... the guitarists decided to speed up all the riffs and ended up with one of the greatest albums ever created: Reign in Blood.
There is a second instance of this occurring that I'm aware of: Litany. The band had intended this to be a longer album, but when Doc came in to lay down the drums he didn't like the speed so he played it as fast as he wanted the songs to go. The band ended up with a thirty minute album that ended up being their own equivalent to Reign in Blood. A lofty claim, but one that is entirely justified.
Vader has often been described as Slayer on steroids, and no other album shows that better than Litany. These riffs have the same atonal dissonance that Slayer has, but they are beefier and draw more from classic death metal than anything Slayer ever did.
The drums are precise and drive the music forward more so than most bands. They are mixed so forward in Litany that they are nearly impossible to ignore. Doc is a human metronome on this release and I can't think of a stronger performance from him before his undue demise decades ago.
These eleven songs are some of the most intense metal I have in my collection. These riffs are the very definition of brutal. They bludgeon me over and over again until there is nothing left. Peter's voice is the perfect accompaniment, somewhat spoken, somewhat growled, somewhat yelled. It just works.
There is no moment on Litany that is poorly written. The speed, the cadence, the brutality, the intensity, everything... nothing is lacking. Is this the prefect album? I don't know... but the fact that I can't say no immediately to that gives me pause. I can't think of a single bad moment during the entire 31 minutes... if it's not perfect it's pretty damn close.
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