ALBUM REVIEW: Sodom - "Decision Day"

By: Richard Maw

Album Type: Full Length

Date Released: 26/08/2016

Label: Steamhammer

This is highly recommended for anyone who likes the gnarlier end of metal from Motorhead to Venom to Exodus to early Sepultura to Ravens Creed and so on. Nasty. And great!

“Decision Day” CD//DD//LP track listing:

01. In Retribution (06:14)
02. Rolling Thunder (04:22)
03. Decision Day (04:03)
04. Caligula (04:01)
05. Who Is God? (04:35)
06. Strange Lost World (04:59)
07. Vaginal Born Evil (05:15)
08. Belligerence (04:00)
09. Blood Lions (03:17)
10. Sacred Warpath (05:34)
11. Refused To Die (04:27)
12. Predatory Instinct (04:44) (bonus track for vinyl and iTunes edition)

The Review:

From their early days when they played a kind of primitive black metal akin to Venom/Hellhammer, to the seminal albums of the late 80's, Sodom have occupied a rather special niche. They remain part of the German Big Three (arguably four, if you count Tankard) with Kreator and Destruction. Truthfully, I have never gone through Sodom's back catalogue in the same way as I have Kreator's, but that may now have to change.

“Decision Day” represents another quality release in the Sodom discography. You get eleven tracks of feral thrash. From opener “In Retribution”, through the title track and beyond, this is evil and dark music from masters of the genre. The technique is most certainly there these days, with Tom Angelripper backed up very impressively by Bern Kost and Markus Freiwald. Keeping to the power trio format has been the band’s strength over the years: think of them as a thrash Motorhead. You know what you want, what you are getting and what the band will inevitably deliver.

There are surprising moments of melody to go with the bombast- a lead break here, a tempo change there- it all adds up to a record that is well rounded and impressively adrenaline fuelled. The bass sound, as heard on “Caligula” is also mightily impressive. Sodom have kept the somewhat inventive/bizarre phrasing from earlier albums with titles like “Vaginal Born Evil" and have certainly kept their anger intact. This is metal of the old school variety- when it was still dangerous and a bit... well, scary.

It is on the most focused and succinct tracks which the band really shines- “Blood Lions” being a prime example- but the album is such that there is nothing spare here, nothing wasted. The song lengths are fairly uniform- around four minutes, although sometimes on either side of that and this is indicative of the fact that Tom and crew have their style down and write in a particular way as pertains to structure and changes. Ultimately, this is a huge strength: the band know exactly how to do this and they do it very well.

By the time “Refused To Die” rolls around, the album has proven to be very much a heads-down-see-you-at-the-end thrash fest. This is highly recommended for anyone who likes the gnarlier end of metal from Motorhead to Venom to Exodus to early Sepultura to Ravens Creed and so on. Nasty. And great!

“Decision Day” is available now

Band info: facebook

FFO: Kreator, Destruction, Slayer, Venom

Kreator - “Love Us Or Hate Us”: The Very Best of The Noise Years 1985-1992 (Album Review)

By: Richard Maw

 

Album Type: 2CD
Date Released: 06/05/2016
Label: BMG | Sanctuary Records |
Noise Records

 

 

When all is said and done, the vast majority of the two discs are absolutely killer. The first disc in particular is a rip ride through some of the greatest metal ever laid down. Two thirds of the second disc is awe inspiring too.  If you fancy an introduction to the band or need a one stop shop to replace worn vinyl or lost CDs, this compilation is undoubtedly for you as it is superb. What a band!

 

“Love Us Or Hate Us”: The Very Best of The Noise Years 1985-1992 CD track listing:

 

Disc 1:

Tracks 1-5 “Endless Pain” (1985)
Tracks 6-10 “Pleasure to Kill” (1986)
Tracks 11-15 “Terrible Certainty” (1987)

Disc 2:

Tracks 1-5 “Extreme Aggression” (1989)
Tracks 6-10 “Coma of Souls” (1990)
Tracks 11-15 “Renewal” (1992)

 

The Review:

 

Kreator form one part of the big three/big four of German thrash metal. Along with Sodom, Destruction and Tankard their status as Teutonic metal legends is not in doubt. This two disc compilation catches their classic career period and also their tailing off in the early 90's. Naturally, a band this good would not stay down for long and their post millennium albums have also been by and largely good to excellent (“Phantom Antichrist” is fantastic). Kreator these days have more melodic tendencies and the chaos is more restrained.

 

Melody and restraint are not words I would use in connection with the best of the material on offer here; “Endless Pain” is a more extreme version of Venom and the material from that nasty record played a part in the nascent death metal and even black metal genres. Similarly, “Pleasure To Kill” is revered as a thrash classic and often mentioned as the one album that could rival “Reign In Blood” for violence and intensity. There is no doubt that the material from those two albums sounds superb here; violent, chaotic and the aural equivalent of a riot (of violence). Tracks such as “Bonebreaker” veer close to Motorhead in approach, while “Under The Guillotine” is just brutal and devastatingly fast thrash, plain and simple. “Ripping Corpse”, probably my favourite from Kreator and indeed the “PTK” album sounds as vicious as it did when I first heard it.

 

“Terrible Certainty” is represented well here with clear improvements in musicianship and even production; this is a more clinical version of Kreator, but no less devastating. There is even a little melodic intro to “Behind The Mirror” which is a tiny portent of things to come in a  distant future for the band.

 

The band upped their game again for “Extreme Aggression”- the material from that album is tight and focused and well played too; it is the sound of a band in total command of their style and the tracks selected to open up the second disc are excellent. “Love Us Or Hate Us” is still a thrash anthem and sounds great here as do the other choice cuts from the album. “Coma of Souls” from 1990 gets a good showing here too; the band still plays in the traditional thrash style and the album is a good- if not great- one. Certainly it would be greater than what followed. The guitars sound reliably gnarly and the overall production is really quite good. Ventor's twin kicks are high in the mix with an almost “And Justice For All” style slap to the sound- but the snare is a little echoey and distant (probably a reaction to the bizarre compressed snare of “And Justice For All”). “People of the Lie” is the “hit” from the “Coma...” album and is included here. That makes five cracking albums in a row from Kreator in a short time period, too.

 

Thereafter, the issue of “Renewal” rears its head. It is no secret that thrash went through a fallow period in the post “Black Album” (and then grunge) landscape. Most bands changed; Testament released some simplified and slowed down records, even Overkill kind of aped Sabbath on the distinctly un-thrash “I Hear Black”. Kreator experimented with industrial sounds and slower tempos for “Renewal”. Honestly, the tracks from it here are not bad, per se, but just not why I would listen to Kreator (i.e. for brutal and violent thrash). Ultimately, the most and least you could say about “Renewal” is that it was a record of its time and place. It is bizarrely over-represented here and the samples and sound effects employed on tracks such as “Depression Unrest” sound out of kilter with the rest of this excellent compilation.

 

When all is said and done, the vast majority of the two discs are absolutely killer. The first disc in particular is a rip ride through some of the greatest metal ever laid down. Two thirds of the second disc is awe inspiring too. Kreator would claw their way back from the wilderness ten years later, but the band's exit from Noise Records and subsequent 90's releases are not their most celebrated moments. If you fancy an introduction to the band or need a one stop shop to replace worn vinyl or lost CDs, this compilation is undoubtedly for you as it is superb. What a band!

 

“Love Us Or Hate Us”: The Very Best of The Noise Years 1985-1992 is available now

 

Band info: facebook

The Sludgelord News: THE BIG TEUTONIC 4 The legacy continues!

German thrash titans KREATOR, SODOM, DESTRUCTION and TANKARD, collectively known as THE BIG TEUTONIC 4, have announced the release of their second prestigious 10" vinyl record. After the huge success of the first release in early 2013, the next output will contain rare cover versions of iconic NWOBHM classics.

The 10” will be available on red vinyl and released via the Nuclear Blast UK Webstore. You can pre-order your copy here: http://bit.ly/BigTeutonicVinyl

The tracklisting reads as follows:

Side A:

KREATOR - Lambs To The Slaughter (RAVEN cover)
SODOM - Don't Walk Away (TANK cover)

Side B:
DESTRUCTION - Princess Of The Night (SAXON cover)
TANKARD - Iron Maiden (IRON MAIDEN cover)

THE BIG TEUTONIC 4 had this to say about the release:

Mille Petrozza, KREATOR: "As teenagers we were die hard fans of RAVEN. This song perfectly reflects the lifestyle back then and was the second cover version we recorded in a studio."

Tom Angelripper, SODOM: "When TANK released The 12“ Single 'Don`t Walk Away' in 1981, it was the first time I got in touch with this awesome band and the title track is still one of my favorite songs. They inspired me to become a die hard metal fan until the rest of my life and keep my own band as a trio ensemble."

Schmier, DESTRUCTION: "Shortly before we formed DESTRUCTION we were all together at a SAXON concert in Switzerland on their "Denim & Leather" tour. 'Princess...' always was on of my all time fave tracks from the british NWOBHM masters - this very unique riff was already the first step into speed metal, by that time we did not know how important this evening was - a night and a song that has definitely influenced us all the way!"

Gerre, TANKARD: "The first two MAIDEN albums are my personal favorites so it's a real honor to me, that our version of 'Iron Maiden' will finally be available on vinyl. It was super fun to record and even Paul Di'Anno once said in an Crossfire interview with Rock Hard magazine that he liked our version. There couldn't be any better accolade and we're very exicted to see THE BIG TEUTONIC 4 continued."

nuclearblast.de/thebigteutonic4

Source: Nuclear Blast UK