Sodom
In the Sign of Evil /
Obsessed by Cruelty
[Steamhammer]
Continuing on my excursion of reviewing classic albums from the
eighties (further testimony to just how crap a lot of new black metal
is these days), I've decided to dig deep into the vaults of metaldom
and pull out this gem - the first two Sodom albums released on one CD.
First up we have "In the Sign of Evil", which is (in my opinion) the greatest thing Sodom have ever released (as well as being one of the greatest black metal records EVER). What can really be said about such a classic ? Sodom (at this time) could barely play their instruments (with drummer "Witchhunter" being the worst of the lot, not being able to hold down a steady tempo to save his life), and I remember a running joke at the time was that whenever Angelripper let out one of his many infamous "BLEH!" vocalizations, it wasn't so much for effect as it was to let the other guys knows it was time to switch to the next riff. Yet in spite of this (or perhaps BECAUSE of it), the 5 tracks here are some of the blackest metal (80s style of course) to ever see the light of day. The atmosphere on these tracks is unbelievable...sure it might sound dated to some (aka: the kiddies who were weaned on Dark Funeral and Emperor releases), but whenever I put on "Blasphemer" with its bass heavy rhythm, or the evil-as-all-fuck "Sepulchral Voice", I still get shivers running down my spine. And hey, how can you not love a band that has the lyric "Masturbate to kill myself" ? Production-wise, this has a very roomy feel, with each instrument being able to shine through distinctly. This EP is an absolute essential. 5 tracks of primal and simplistic black thrash metal.
Now we move onto "Obsessed by Cruelty". While "In the Sign of Evil" had shown Sodom's ability to create eerily atmospheric (think Hellhammer's "Apocalyptic Raids" EP) black metal, this is the album where they let completely loose and were a powerhouse of fast, in your face blackness. This album alone is more responsible for Mayhem (yes, the band) than anything else (with Venom running a close second)...don't believe me ? Where do you think Euronymous got the moniker ("Deathlike Silence") for his label ? Yep, that's right, it's the opening track on this LP...not to mention that early Mayhem was nothing more than a poor mans version of Sodom, but I digress - back to the music. The sheer evilness of this album is overwhelming, much in the same way as Bathory's "The Return"...it just permeates everything about this. The production (on *this* CD version) is quite suiting : it's so chaotic with instruments blending into one another with such a frequency, that you don't really notice individual "sounds", just the combined result (I suppose an easier way of saying that would have been to just describe the album as having a "wall of noise" production). For the most part, the music on this CD is a blur of one super fast riff after another, but during every song, at least one mighty lone riff comes shining through to guide you through the sonic attack. Highlights of the album include "Deathlike Silence", Obsessed By Cruelty", "Fall of Majesty Town", "Pretenders to the Throne", and of course, the mighty "Volcanic Slut". Highly recommended to both the old school crowd (who probably already have this) and the modern BM fan...
One last note : the track listing for this CD is completely bonkers. "ItSoE" (while only being 5 tracks) is indexed as 8 tracks (they individually separated the intro & outro, along with the intro to "Burst Command Til War"). Along with this, track 9 is actually an intro to "ObC", with "Deathlike Silence" being track 10...to further add to the confusion, Volcanic Slut is NOT the last track on the CD (it's actually track 14), and the track "After the Deluge" is *NOT* on this CD. The reason for this is also the same as why I referred to the production on "ObC" as "on *this* version"...here's a very abbreviated version of the story :
When Sodom originally recorded "ObC", they were quite unhappy with the results, and so they rerecorded the album...once again, they were not happy with the results, but they had to release something, so what we ended up with is having TWO versions of this album exist : one of the versions is what we have here, and what was released on vinyl to much of the world....the other version is what MetalBlade Records released domestically in the USA, and THAT is the version that actually had "After the Deluge" on it. So by deductive reasoning, we can conclude that this CD has the "worldwide" version of "ObC" (as "After the Deluge" is not present) - but then WHY did Steamhammer (who would have originally released the "worldwide" version on vinyl back in the eighties) choose to use the NORTH AMERICAN track listing ?!?!?! Word is that MetalBlade Records is planning on also re-releasing their version on CD sometime in the future, and that should be interesting (perhaps they'll also fuck it up and use the worldwide track listing)...
© 1999 chorazaim
First up we have "In the Sign of Evil", which is (in my opinion) the greatest thing Sodom have ever released (as well as being one of the greatest black metal records EVER). What can really be said about such a classic ? Sodom (at this time) could barely play their instruments (with drummer "Witchhunter" being the worst of the lot, not being able to hold down a steady tempo to save his life), and I remember a running joke at the time was that whenever Angelripper let out one of his many infamous "BLEH!" vocalizations, it wasn't so much for effect as it was to let the other guys knows it was time to switch to the next riff. Yet in spite of this (or perhaps BECAUSE of it), the 5 tracks here are some of the blackest metal (80s style of course) to ever see the light of day. The atmosphere on these tracks is unbelievable...sure it might sound dated to some (aka: the kiddies who were weaned on Dark Funeral and Emperor releases), but whenever I put on "Blasphemer" with its bass heavy rhythm, or the evil-as-all-fuck "Sepulchral Voice", I still get shivers running down my spine. And hey, how can you not love a band that has the lyric "Masturbate to kill myself" ? Production-wise, this has a very roomy feel, with each instrument being able to shine through distinctly. This EP is an absolute essential. 5 tracks of primal and simplistic black thrash metal.
Now we move onto "Obsessed by Cruelty". While "In the Sign of Evil" had shown Sodom's ability to create eerily atmospheric (think Hellhammer's "Apocalyptic Raids" EP) black metal, this is the album where they let completely loose and were a powerhouse of fast, in your face blackness. This album alone is more responsible for Mayhem (yes, the band) than anything else (with Venom running a close second)...don't believe me ? Where do you think Euronymous got the moniker ("Deathlike Silence") for his label ? Yep, that's right, it's the opening track on this LP...not to mention that early Mayhem was nothing more than a poor mans version of Sodom, but I digress - back to the music. The sheer evilness of this album is overwhelming, much in the same way as Bathory's "The Return"...it just permeates everything about this. The production (on *this* CD version) is quite suiting : it's so chaotic with instruments blending into one another with such a frequency, that you don't really notice individual "sounds", just the combined result (I suppose an easier way of saying that would have been to just describe the album as having a "wall of noise" production). For the most part, the music on this CD is a blur of one super fast riff after another, but during every song, at least one mighty lone riff comes shining through to guide you through the sonic attack. Highlights of the album include "Deathlike Silence", Obsessed By Cruelty", "Fall of Majesty Town", "Pretenders to the Throne", and of course, the mighty "Volcanic Slut". Highly recommended to both the old school crowd (who probably already have this) and the modern BM fan...
One last note : the track listing for this CD is completely bonkers. "ItSoE" (while only being 5 tracks) is indexed as 8 tracks (they individually separated the intro & outro, along with the intro to "Burst Command Til War"). Along with this, track 9 is actually an intro to "ObC", with "Deathlike Silence" being track 10...to further add to the confusion, Volcanic Slut is NOT the last track on the CD (it's actually track 14), and the track "After the Deluge" is *NOT* on this CD. The reason for this is also the same as why I referred to the production on "ObC" as "on *this* version"...here's a very abbreviated version of the story :
When Sodom originally recorded "ObC", they were quite unhappy with the results, and so they rerecorded the album...once again, they were not happy with the results, but they had to release something, so what we ended up with is having TWO versions of this album exist : one of the versions is what we have here, and what was released on vinyl to much of the world....the other version is what MetalBlade Records released domestically in the USA, and THAT is the version that actually had "After the Deluge" on it. So by deductive reasoning, we can conclude that this CD has the "worldwide" version of "ObC" (as "After the Deluge" is not present) - but then WHY did Steamhammer (who would have originally released the "worldwide" version on vinyl back in the eighties) choose to use the NORTH AMERICAN track listing ?!?!?! Word is that MetalBlade Records is planning on also re-releasing their version on CD sometime in the future, and that should be interesting (perhaps they'll also fuck it up and use the worldwide track listing
© 1999 chorazaim