Album review: Sodom “Genesis XIX”
German thrash metal band Sodom adds some new nuances and influences on the terrific “Genesis XIX”, the band’s 16th studio album.
Bandleader Tom Angelripper, on vocals and bass, remains at the helm of Sodom, a band he founded nearly four decades ago. Guitarist Frank Blackfire (ex-Kreator) has returned to Sodom of which he was a member in the 1980s. Guitarist Yorck Segatz and drummer Toni Merkel complete the current – terrific – line-up of the band. The new album is without compromises. It’s tough, raw, gritty, pissed off and in your face. It is an album created during the coronavirus pandemic and you can hear it. Sodom is a terrific thrash metal band but on this new album, we get more than just hard-hitting thrash metal. It is a rather diverse album with different influences. While we get splendid thrash on tracks such as “Euthanasia”, “Dehumanized” and “Friendly Fire” (quite possibly the top track on this release together with “Sodom & Gomorrah”), a track like “Occult Perpetrator” is quite far from normal thrash and is more some kind of bombastic and epic style of heavy metal mixed with black metal touches. “Waldo & Pigpen” is another track with a difference – it starts off slowly and a bit doomy before moving more into thrash territory and on the track “Indoctrination” we get a terrific punky shout-along chorus. On “Nicht Mehr Mein Land” we get world-class thrash sung in German. Throughout the new album, we hear proof of Sodom as a band that has inspired plenty of death and black metal acts with its sound. Frank and Yorck are two very different but equally gifted guitarists. Combining their diverse talents in the same band works very well for Sodom. I love the new Sodom with a rock-solid thrash metal foundation and with overlays of all kinds of different influences. The many nuances suit Sodom’s music very well. This is an album overflowing with terrific metal.
Sodom’s new album “Genesis XIX” will be released on 27th November via Steamhammer/SPV.
