The new Vandal from DV8....this is THE must-have ball for the summer, the fall, winter, and spring. You need to have this ball. There isn't much more that needs to be said. However, I can't just leave it at that :-) .

Drilled it up 70 x 4 1/2" x 40 and have thrown it on a variety of patterns so far:

House Shot: The Vandal takes advantage of the help that the lane gives you. The strong-revving core make the same shape on the backend regardless of what part of the lane you're utilizing, and the new COMPOSITE coverstock material is strong off of friction without being weak in oil.

39' Sport: Definitely a little to erratic on the fresh. As the lane breaks down a little bit, the Vandal makes it easy to open angles and still get the ball to drive through the pins. Often times when trying to open my angles, I feel like I have to try and make the ball "get up the hill," as I say to myself, to get the ball to face and go through the pins the right way. The Vandal gets up the hill without have to force it or make it get up the hill. Just make a little hand position change to alter your axis rotation and let it fly.

44' Sport: On the fresh, closed angles are the way to go. Even on the fresh, the backend move was strong enough to make it easy to use. No ball would work when pitching the ball out into the OB, but the Vandal was big enough in the back to get me through a couple games until a dry spot appeared. After some transition, the Vandal was unstoppable. On long patterns, you need a ball that backends so it goes through the pins with some energy, and I have NEVER seen a ball drive through the deck on a long pattern like this one.

Comparing the new Vandal with the Thug, since it was the last asym ball with compound from DV8, the Vandal was not as sensitive to oil on the fresh patterns. I find that I can only throw my Thug when the lane has a defined hook spot to throw at. The Vandal's new cover is strong enough the it will still get some play without having the big hook spot. On all three patterns, I adjusted 3 and 1 inside with the Vandal compared to my Thug, and noticed a stronger midlane revving (with much wider flares) and even better continuation.

The new Vandal from DV8 is definitely the ball to get. The motion reminds me of a VERY popular ball from almost a decade ago....hmmmmm strong asym core, dark color, big flaring midlane and backend. Everyone had one of those, and everyone needs to have one of these.

Shape of the core reminds me of the Night Hawk/Havoc core. Love that core.

Composite Coverstock will be the new standard for performance.

Thanks for the review, Tim!

It is too bad that they use a generic core and don't use the same type, size and shape but a wee bit less dense core in light weight balls like Motiv does. I would be willing to try DV8 if they did.

I wouldn't let this prevent you from trying a DV8 ball.  My 12# DV8 Marauder worked great once I got the cover tuned the way I liked it.  I also have a 12# DV8 Endless Nightmare and the carry is just as good as my 12# Motiv Primal Rage, if not slightly better.  I only use my Primal Rage more because it is rare to have enough oil on the lane for the Endless Nightmare.

I would rather have a more dynamic generic core than a lower density, less dynamic version of the heavier weight core.

I had a chance to demo all the new releases from Big B , DV8 and Radical and I will say by far the Vandal was my favorite. Lots of performance and backed on this ball. The Corrupt Thug was also good with about 4 more boards of hook and a smoother backend.