Sodom – Decision Day

[schema type=”review” name=”Sodom- Decision Day” description=”Label: Steamhammer/SPV” author=”Irem Orhan” pubdate=”2016-08-26″ ]

When it comes to thrash metal, one can easily say that Sodom is one of the pioneering bands of the scene. Started as a “black” metal band, they released some of the milestones of thrash metal, such as “Agent Orange” and “In War and Pieces”, the latter being released in 2000’s.

Now they have another release, which, I could not help comparing with their previous release “Epitome of Torture”. In this brand new album, you can easily notice that Angelripper has chosen to be rather experimental with his vocals. They reminded me of their early releases – or maybe he is just getting older and his voice is getting raspier year by year? 🙂 I also saw them live this year in Party.San – the performance was okay but you could say that Angelripper is getting old.

The opening track, in my opinion, is a rather weak one. The intro is catchy but I could not find anything interesting in the rest of the track, sadly… The following track ‘Rolling Thunder’ has some interesting moments in it, such as the screeching ROLLING THUNDEEEEEER of Angelripper in the chorus – it was quite unexpected for me to hear! It’s not such a band thing to be experimental after all! That being said, this track is not really the shining star of the album either.

‘Caligula’ and ‘Who is God’ happen to be both really catchy tracks though, which is on par with some tracks in “Epitome of Torture”. If you placed these two particular songs in the tracklist of “Epitome of Torture”, I wouldn’t notice 😉 As an avid fan of raspy vocals, I especially liked the chorus of ‘Who is God’.

‘Strange Lost Word’ starts good but loses its energy yet again, just like most other tracks in the album. The chorus of ‘Vaginal Born Evil’ is right up my street and the drumming is the classical Sodom sound that we are accustomed to hear. ‘Belligerence’ has quite thrashy moments, embellished with impressive vocals and drumming. ‘Sacred Warpath’ was a piece that I had the chance to hear live. I regret to say that I had to stop headbanging when they started playing it- as I’ve said, most songs lack energy, and so does this one.

Overall, the album has some interesting openings and moments, but that’s it – it lacks great deal of energy, thrashiness and catchiness that its predecessor “Epitome of Torture” had. With its drums, vocals (even back vocals!) and solos, I can easily put “Epitome of Torture” on my list of “best thrash metal albums released in 2000’s”. Sadly, “Decision Day” cannot even come close. Or maybe I just have a major problem with concept albums. Who knows?

Line-up:
Tom Angelripper – vocals,bass
Bernemann – guitars
Markus “Makka” Freiwald – drums

Tracklist: 01. In Retribution 02. Rolling Thunder 03. Decision Day 04. Caligula 05. Who Is God? 06. Strange Lost World 07. Vaginal Born Evil 08. Belligerence 09. Blood Lions 10. Sacred Warpath 11. Refused To Die

Links:
Sodom Facebook
Sodom Official