Kreator, Destruction and Tankard would round out such a
lineup
By Peter Lindblad
 |
| Sodom's Tom Angelripper (photo by Robert Schmidt) |
America wants desperately to see more of the Big Four together,
but Anthrax, Slayer, Metallica and Megadeth haven’t been able – or willing, perhaps,
despite comments to the contrary – to bring their epic thrash-metal spectacle
to the States.
Meanwhile, the States are, for all intents and purposes,
virgin territory for Sodom, one of the most ferocious and rugged speed-metal
outfits Germany has ever produced. Bassist/vocalist Tom Angelripper, the driving
force behind Sodom and the only founding member left, wants to change that. And
he’d like nothing better than to put together a “Big Teutonic 4” tour of
Germanic thrash titans with Kreator, Destruction, and Tankard to conquer North
America.
“I know that we have to talk about the U.S./North American
tour, you know, but one of my dreams is to get … we have to talk about the Big
Four and bring it up on the stage,” says Angelripper. “There’s a festival next
month, Beastival [in Gieselwind, Germany], where all four bands play in a
block, you know. And I get so many fans that want it on other stages in Germany
or worldwide. It’s what I talk about. The next step is [to make it] real –
whenever I talk to Mille [Petrozza] from Kreator, maybe we can do something
between Christmastime, or the New Year. I also want to bring it to the U.S. and
North America.”
Sodom, who will unleash their latest thrash-metal epistle, Epitome of Torture, on May 7 in the U.S.
and Canada on Steamhammer/SPV, has always run into bad luck trying to organize
U.S. jaunts.
“We never had a chance to do a big tour in America,” admits
Angelripper. “We always had problems, you know. We never found very good
serious promoters. We always had problems on the border. The last time we were
supposed to play the Maryland Deathfest. The promoter said you have to go as
tourists, but a band like Sodom, we can’t go as tourists. We have all our guitars,
you know. And to do that, we have to go as a band; they know that we are Sodom
and going to play there, you know. We need papers or a visa? I don’t know what
it’s called, but [we need] working papers and all the stuff you need to go
over.”
Other places are more accommodating, like metal-crazed South
America for example.
“We never had any problems going to South America,” explains
Angelripper. “We get our visa, we get our stuff, and we get a good deal, so we
go. That is the thing. We are sitting at home waiting for offers. I think that
would be a really good idea to get the four bands on a couple of stages in the
U.S. and the Americas – that would be a dream, you know. To get all the four
bands together, that’s what I’m working for and that’s my dream. The problem is
different companies and agencies, they follow their own interests. They want to
make money. All it takes is for the bands to say, ‘Yes, we’ll do it.’”
It would seem that a gathering of this magnitude would be a
cash cow for all involved. Angelripper has no illusions, however, of drawing
the kinds of massive crowds the Big Four saw during their Sonisphere Festival
series run of 2010.
“It’s not like the Big Four, with Metallica, Anthrax, Slayer
or whatever,” says Angelripper. “But it’s good for 2,000 or 3,000 people, you
know. And if there’s any promoter that would help us do it, we will do it. I
have a different booking agency than Kreator, you know. So we have to get at
one table and talk about this shit. We want to go. We want to go to South
America, to North America … anywhere.”
Any of those places would welcome Sodom with open arms upon
hearing Epitome of Torture, an
intense, punishing attack from start to finish that couches themes of war and
peace in raging guitar riffs, slamming drums – from new drummer Markus “Makka”
Freiwald – and bass that could cause a seismic event. And that’s exactly what
Angelripper wanted to hear in this latest record.
“We did a kind of pre-production before, you know, and [producer]
Waldemar [Sorychta] was also important in the songwriting and the arrangements
you know,” reveals Angelripper. “And yes, we did talk about what we did with In War and Pieces, what we can change
now, and when we started writing new songs actually, the most important thing
was that we get a new drummer. It’s ‘Makka’ [Markus Friewald] on the drums
nowadays, and we were able to do more heavier songs and more faster songs than
on In War and Pieces.”
Angelripper also was displeased with the public reaction to
In War and Pieces.
“We also talked about the sound,” he says. “There are some
fans who told me that In War and Pieces
sounds like a new metalcore band, which I hate. So we talked about how to get
more Sodom spirit into the songs, more dirt … to pick up hate sounds, you know,
we did a ton of re-editing with hate sounds, like Venom, you know. I thought [it
should be] like when you listen to old Venom stuff, you know. I know we
recorded [digitally], which is usual and also [cheaper] nowadays, but when I
had the production sound, I wanted it to sound more on the low end, like in the
‘80s, you know. I wanted to get the Sodom spirit and the Sodom sound out, you
know. But it was Waldemar who could help us. He’s a wonderful producer. It was
important for me to spend the money not for a high-priced studio; it was better
to spend the money for a producer who is going to help us from the beginning to
the end.”
Waldemar’ influence is felt on Epitome of Torture, which will come out in three versions – a
standard jewel case CD, a two colored LP plus three bonus tracks – double gatefold
with printed innersleeves – and a limited-edition digipak, with two bonus
tracks and a poster. For more information, visit http://www.sodomized.info/?l=en.
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