CD Review: Sodom – Epitome of Torture

CD Review: Sodom – Epitome of Torture

Steamhammer/SPV

All Access Rating: B+

Sodom - Epitome of Torture 2013

War is hell, and the concept of it scares Sodom’s Tom Angelripper to death. To deal with his dread, he paints some of the most horrifying scenes of bloody carnage imaginable in the gory, death-obsessed lyrics smeared all over the bombed-out walls of Sodom’s catalog. His fears haven’t abated in recent years; neither has his seething anger.

There’s a bonus track on the limited-edition digipak version of the German thrash-metal juggernaut’s newest LP, Epitome of Torture, called “Waterboarding,” where Angelripper winces at just how far sadistic interrogators are willing to go behind closed doors. And then there’s the blistering “Katjuschka,” which finds Angelripper shaking his head in disgust over a Russian rocket launcher – responsible for death and destruction on a massive scale – that has the same name as a folk song about a young girl. Nobody’s laughing at the irony, especially not Angelripper, whose descriptive lyrics are as intellectually sharp as the point of a spear on the action-packed Epitome of Torture.

Fortunately for him, Angelripper has a vehicle for expressing his outrage, and that’s Sodom, whose latest album – quite possibly one of the hardest-hitting and most rugged of their career, sounding very much like Slayer in their prime or early Metallica – simply spits nails and inhales mustard gas like it was French perfume. “S.O.D.O.M.” and “Stigmatized” are particularly brutal and ferocious sermons of apocalyptic devastation and intensity, with new drummer Markus “Makka” Freiwald setting a frantic pace and throwing down a frenzied gauntlet of double-kick drum fury. And the title track jumps right into the fray, throwing brass-knuckled riff haymakers left and right – as guitarist Bernemann does throughout Epitome of Torture – and repeatedly thrusting its sharp bayonets into the song’s sinewy flesh. Perhaps inspired by Freiwald’s manic drumming, an energized Bernemann unleashes some of the most potent and rabid riffage of his career. And his solos are just as explosive.

Never taking a breather, although “My Final Bullet” and “Cannibal” have their melodic parts, Epitome of Torture is a wildfire that consumes everything in its path, though the songwriting is not quite as multi-faceted as that of their countrymen Kreator. The speed of “Shoot Today, Kill Tomorrow” is blinding, while “Invocating the Demons” flies around in dizzying fashion, like a nosediving fighter jet. And although Epitome of Torture often feels like it is constantly going 120 miles per hour, without ever slowing down, there are dynamic shifts in tempo and moments of crushing heaviness in tracks like “Into the Skies of War” and the closer “Tracing the Victim,” with its gripping, almost seductive hooks closing their fingers around your throat.

Mad as hell on Epitome of Torture, Angelripper is not going to take it anymore. His guttural growls and in-your-face rages demand your undivided attention as he regales you with tales of human depravity and callous disregard for the sanctity of life. It’s tough, hard-nosed and graphic, just like the over-the-top violence depicted on the Epitome of Torture cover, sort of a tamer, but more politicized, version of Cannibal Corpse artwork. Sodom will not be silenced, and with records like this, Angelripper’s roaring voice should be heard. http://www.spv.de/

-        – Peter Lindblad  

Sodom dreams of a 'Big Teutonic 4' tour

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. 

Best of 2012 ... so far (Part 2)

Unveiling the top five hard rock and heavy metal albums of this half year

By Peter Lindblad

And then there were five. Fine specimens of skilled musicianship, thrilling energy and conceptual artistry, these sparkling diamonds bear hardly any rust, even if Judas Priest is nowhere to be found among them. From the devastating brutality and white-hot intensity of Whitechapel and Kreator to the steam-punk splendor and adventurous progressive spirit of Rush and black melodic magic of Kill Devil Hill, 2012 has been a banner year for hard rock and heavy metal up to this point.

And though any of the four mentioned above could easily have garnered the top spot, none of them did. There is another whose mystical vision and raging metal tumult simply boggles the mind. It is a perfect storm, one that would make meteorologists quiver with excitement. And it will leave you disheveled and dumbstruck, scrambling your brains so thoroughly that you might not remember where you are or how you got there. Feel free to agree or disagree with the list or its order, as long as we can do it over drinks at an establishment of my choosing.

Whitechapel - Whitechapel 2012

5. Whitechapel: Whitechapel – Nobody’s taken a bigger leap forward in 2012 than Whitechapel. It’s not enough anymore for deathcore’s biggest breakout act to take audiences by brute force. It’s not enough for them to terrify the easily offended with gore-splattered lyrics. These tortured Tennesseans with the swarming, intricately woven triple-axe attack have gone all in on their self-titled not-so-pretty hate machine, with back-breaking tempo shifts, maximum riffage and crazed dynamics threatening to consume Phil Bozeman’s guttural growl. Pretty little piano passages – a tribute to a fallen friend – set listeners up for the kill, as the imaginative sonic architects of Whitechapel makes good on their promise to conquer expectations.

Kill Devil Hill - 2012

4. Kill Devil Hill: Kill Devil Hill – A thick slab of surging, darkly melodic doom metal, Kill Devil Hill’s powerhouse debut bulldozes gothic ruins of riff-heavy rock and builds towering, monolithic new song structures atop the sacred burial grounds of Pantera and Ozzy-led Black Sabbath. More than the sum of its talented parts, Kill Devil Hill – created by former Sabbath and Dio drummer Vinny Appice, with ex-Pantera bassist Rex Brown onboard – introduces to the world Dewey Bragg, a man with the voice of a lion, and guitarist Mark Zavon, whose Panzer-like guitar forays seem directed by Rommel himself. The Alice In Chains comparisons are unavoidable, but with Brown lending heft and potency to the low end and Appice beating the living daylights out of his kit, Kill Devil Hill – immersed in all the haunting blackness and gloom of a graveyard after hours – boasts way more sonic mass than its grunge-era counterparts.

Rush - Clockwork Angels 2012

3. Rush: Clockwork Angels – 2112 was a great album … for its time. Clockwork Angels is better. Blasphemy, you say? Clockwork Angels is heavier – “BU2B” and “Carnies” – and more complex musically, although perhaps less raw and angry. The elaborate story, welded to some of the most grandiose sonic architecture the Canadians have ever constructed, of Clockwork Angels is wonderfully crafted, a mature, thought-provoking concept with none of the holes or the confused hokum of the 2112 saga. Where revisionists might see 2112 as the epochal moment where Rush’s power and progressive-rock inclinations clashed to create a compelling piece of art – which 2112 surely is – Clockwork Angels finds Rush still suspicious of totalitarian authority but more articulate and elegant about how they construct a response to it. And “The Wreckers” is one of Rush’s finest creations.

Kreator - Phantom Antichrist 2012

2. Kreator: Phantom Antichrist – Across a hellish, smoldering wasteland of apocalyptic imagery fly these four horsemen of thrash, soaring to dizzying heights on spiraling arpeggios, pounding whole cities into piles of ash with bombing drums and frenzied riffs that attack with an unquenchable blood lust, and speeding at high velocity into the unknown with an unrestrained fury bordering on madness. Screaming for vengeance, tracks like “United in Hate,” “Death to the World,” and “Civilisation Collapse” rain torrents of fiery thrash down on the unsuspecting, while “Until Our Paths Cross Again” and “Your Heaven, My Hell” offer brief moments of bruised beauty amid an outpouring of transcendent power-metal drama. Once again, Mille Petrozza whips this reconnaissance mission of the damned through its paces, and the result is a magnificent manifesto forged of startlingly brilliant technical musicianship and cataclysmic, compelling song craft. Phantom Antichrist will make you a believer.

High On Fire - De Vermis Mysteriis 2012

1. High On Fire: De Vermis Mysteriis – In the eye of a wintery hurricane of blustery, tempest-tossed guitars and roiling rhythmic seas stands High On Fire’s Captain Ahab Matt Pike, daring an angry God bent on destruction to silence his roaring, ragged voice as he relates the woeful plight of Jesus’ cursed twin brother. Mystery, madness, time travel and gale-force riffs threaten to tear the good ship De Vermis Mysteriis to pieces, but Pike’s able seamanship steers this scarred vessel through treacherous, rumbling melodic currents and violent, battering storms of sludgy metal. Epic is too small a word for such a monstrous beast. It’s only four letters after all.