To celebrate the fortieth anniversary of one of the most important thrash bands to come out of Germany, Tom Angelripper decided to revisit all their previous albums and re-record a song from each with the current line-up. 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 line-up featuring Frank Blackfire (guitars), Yorck Segatz (guitars) and Toni Merkel (drums). Tom: “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.” Mind you, what needs to be remembered is that apart from Tom, only Frank had previously played on anything prior to 2018, and that was the two albums he was involved with in the Eighties, as he had been out of the band for nearly 30 years when he returned to the band. For completeness they even re-record a song from the only album this line-up has been involved with, “Euthanasia” from 2020’s ‘Genesis XIX’.

The material has all been brought up to date, and long-time fans of the band will find this an enjoyable romp through material in a newly performed and produced fashion. There is no doubt that “Sepulchral Voice”, which originally appeared on the band’s debut EP, 1984’s ‘In The Sign of Evil’, never sounded as powerful as the version which opens proceedings. It is also interesting in that the band have deliberately chosen tracks seen as rare or previously unplayed, which means the next song is “After The Deluge” which is from the German re-recording of the debut album and did not appear on the original, even though both versions were released in the same year.

Somehow there is a continuity throughout the album which would not have been heard if they had just released this selection of tracks as opposed to re-recording them, and even the older material stands up well in comparison to the more recent songs. The result is something which is probably both more and less than an introduction to Sodom as it does cover the complete lifetime of the band to date while not including the songs for which they are most well-known. However, it certainly seems they are not slowing down yet and are happily heading into their fifth decade as heavy as ever.

Rating: 7/10

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