SODOM „In War and Pieces”

Music: Thrash metal
Website: http://sodomized.info/?l=en
Country: Germany
Duration: 45:05 (11 songs)
Cool Songs: Nothing Counts More Than Blood, Knarrenheinz

SODOM like a bit of variety. In their nigh-on thirty year career they've produced a discography incorporating concept albums, death metal, black metal and even a bit of punk has reared it's snarling head once or twice. However, it looks like this time they're back doing what they know best – with some good ol' fashioned thrash, angry and unrelenting as ever. Nice.

We kick off with title track “In War and Pieces”, and are gently eased into it with some acoustic guitar before Tom Angelripper storms in and proceeds to shout his nuts off in a now customary fashion, venting his objections to all the power, greed and corruption ever-present in humanity. This is accompanied nicely by his bandmates' standard chugging and melodic riff attacks, again, a pattern they adhere to pretty consistently throughout. “Through Toxic Veins” adds a certain ambience to the whole operation with an quite epic, atmospheric introductory solo that continues even as the heavier guitar begins to kick in. Just when it seems they might surprise us and sustain the pretty fretwork, SODOM descend yet again into a filthy pit of kick-ass, crunchy guitars and incessantly pounding drums. Hold on, what's this? About halfway through the album during “Feigned Death Heroes”…is that a few death growls we hear? Just to throw another spanner in the works and mix it all up a bit. Excellent stuff. “God Bless You” on the other hand, begins with some more beautiful but incongruous acoustic arpeggios. Not for long though; they're thankfully very swiftly back on track with the thrash again. Equally, “Knarrenheinz” (whatever that means) is a perfect example of SODOM at their thrashing, SLAYER-esque best; widdly, fret-melting soloing from axeman Bernd Kost makes for proper headbanging material right til the end.

Pretty faultless, but would you expect any less from these veterans? Nothing special or particularly groundbreaking by anyone's standards, but still brilliantly riff-laden and including more than a few cheeky interesting bits just so the whole thing doesn't get too tedious, as is often the risk with such a genre. A foolproof effort pretty much guaranteed to catch the attention of anyone who needed reassuring that such brutality can still exist, and that such a band can only get better with age.

note: 7/10

Tracklist

In War and Pieces
Hellfire
Through Toxic Veins
Nothing Counts More Than Blood
Storm Raging Up
Feigned Death Heroes
Soul Contraband
God Bless You
The Art of Killing Poetry
Knarrenheinz
Styptic Parasite

Line-up

Tom Angelripper – Bass, vocals
Bernd “Bernemann” Kost – Guitar
Bobby Schottkowski – Drums