Genre: Thrash
Country: Germany
Label: SPV/Steamhammer
Year:2022
Country: Germany
Label: SPV/Steamhammer
Year:2022
Sodom celebrates a 40 year course with a compilation that will please every fucking hooligan of them. The German thrash metal veterans will release, «40 Years At War – The Greatest Hell Of Sodom», on October 28 through Steamhammer/SPV. While most bands would pick a best of combo including their most known tracks or somehow called hits, Sodom delivers their hidden gems to sum up their history in an unusual and highly ambitious way.
«Our goal was to re-record one song from each of our previous albums,» SODOM bassist/vocalist Thomas «Angelripper» Such explains. «Not necessarily the most obvious ones, we wanted to go for rarities or tracks we’ve never or very rarely played live.»
The CD and vinyl double LP with their martial cover artwork penned by Eliran Kantor (KREATOR, TESTAMENT, GWAR, among others) include 17 tracks, all newly recorded by the current SODOM lineup featuring Frank Blackfire (guitar),Yorck Segatz (guitar) and Toni Merkel (drums).
Angelripper explains: «We cover the songs unaltered, that’s to say in exactly the same key and with the original lyrics. We’re better musicians now than we were back then, of course, so the new versions sound tighter and more up to date but the arrangements of the songs were deliberately kept unchanged.»
And that is exactly the “secret” that makes this release so special. The fresh look on rare or forgotten gems that without losing any of their power or cult status are now delivered with extra strength and pure hate.
Aside from the CD and a differently coloured double LP with all their songs, the heart of the box set is a large-format hardcover book with a gripping introduction by Tom about their beginnings in 1982. In addition, each album to date is honoured on a double page spread, depicting its original artwork and all production information. One of the highlights of the book are the numerous fan statements, which Sodom had reached out to fans for last year, asking for anecdotes and memories.
Angelripper states: “We have always put special emphasis on our fan culture. That`s why there’s a number of photos where our fans have had their picture taken with us.” The icing on the cake – or in this case the box set – is an audio cassette (!) containing each and every song from the CD/LP plus an exclusive bonus track: the re-recorded version of ‘Equinox’, originally featured on the 1986 album ‘Obsessed By Cruelty’. Tom remembers: “When we started 40 years ago, we weren’t even sure about who should be playing which instrument. In the end, I was left with the bass. We rehearsed in the auditorium of a secondary school and later on in the basement of a family home that belonged to the parents of a buddy of mine. We were on fire, everywhere you went, you experienced new awakenings.”
A must have for their devotees…