Tag Archives: German Thrash Metal

Sodom – Decision Day

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Sodom – Decision Day album cover ghostcultmag

 

With over thirty years in the business and fourteen studio albums under their collective bullet belts, if you don’t know what Sodom are all about by now, then let me be the first to congratulate you on finally leaving the comfort of that rock under which you’ve clearly been living and welcome you to a world scarred by nuclear fallout and filled with the cacophonous noise of World War II bombers, relentless machine gun fire, and German thrash metal fueled by unashamed Motorhead worship.

In fact, due to the distinctive cover art of fifteenth album Decision Day (Steamhammer/SPV), the band’s obvious love of all things Lemmy is very likely to be the first thing you’ll notice. Bearing a striking similarity to 1983 album ‘Another Perfect Day’ (Bronze), it comes as no surprise to discover that the very same artist, Joe Petagno, supplied the brushstrokes this time. Keeping the basic skeleton of the old Motorhead artwork, some quintessentially Sodom touches have been added and the result is more than satisfactory.

Unsurprisingly, this is also evident in the music, and after the opening salvo of ‘In Retribution’, ‘Rolling Thunder’, and title track ‘Decision Day’ the band deliver possibly their most unabashed Motorhead tribute to date (cover versions aside) by lifting the riff to ‘Ace of Spades’ and using it for a song about everybody’s favourite ancient Roman megalomaniac, ‘Caligula’.

‘Who is God’ sees the band (not for the first time) also craftily pilfering from Metallica, with their own take on the riff to ‘Enter Sandman’. ‘Strange Lost World’ crawls menacingly along before the, er.. interestingly titled ‘Vaginal Born Evil’ speeds things up nicely again. ‘Belligerence’ lives entirely up to its name, a groove-laden beast featuring sudden and electric bursts of speed from drummer Markus ‘Makka’ Freiwald and guitarist Bernd “Bernemann” Kost, while vocalist Tom Angelripper lacerates his throat for four enjoyably unwholesome minutes.

The pro-conservation blast of ‘Blood Lions’ doesn’t mess around with its angry message about recreational big game hunting, but the reworking of the title track from the band’s recent ‘Sacred Warpath’ EP doesn’t quite pack the same venomous punch as its 2014 counterpart. Things are brought to a close by the superb ‘Refused to Die’, one of a number of tracks which evoke the spirit of 1987’s Persecution Mania (Steamhammer).

With its pointed riffs and firm production, Decision Day goes to show once again that the majority of Sodom’s peers still remain mere pretenders to the throne.

8.0/10

GARY ALCOCK

 

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Devilment – The Great and Secret Show

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Ask most people who hate Cradle Of Filth what they sound like, and they’ll get it wrong. The pervasive image of the band amongst younger Metal fans is that of pop-heavy, dance-floor filling Metal-lite, and though they must take some of the blame for the ubiquity of that image themselves, musically it just doesn’t fit a band who never dropped the solid core of Maiden, German Thrash and blast-beats that defined their sound. No, for all their leather man-skirts and guy-liner Cradle do not sound like that – but vocalist Dani’s new side-project most certainly do.

Devilment’s musical language is built on the combination of catchy, groovy riffs and the kind of sinister dance beats that filled 90’s Goth clubs. Song-writing is the absolute key here, and Devilment really have a tight grip on it – discrete, catchy songs with plenty of character, based around sharp hooks and driving riffs. Yes, riffs – catchy songs and Goth-club vibes aside, The Great & Secret Show (Nuclear Blast) is a Metal album, just one that eschews the posturing and macho sincerity of traditional Metal.

Dani’s presence is, of course, likely to be one of the big draws here, and existing fans will find his performance both familiar and surprising. The bi-polar extremes of his older performances are almost entirely absent, with the growled vocals completely excised and the testicle-piercing shrieks he’s infamous for barely present. Instead he dwells almost exclusively in a mid-paced speak-snarl reminiscent of the spoken-word vocals he used in Cradle, but with the portentous melodrama replaced with a knowing grin. Combined with his newly-indulged fondness for puns and joke song-titles (‘Even Your Blood Group Rejects Me’ is either brilliant or the exact opposite), he seems to be reinventing himself as the Goth Martin Walkyier – and doing a surprisingly good job of it.

There is nothing “extreme” about The Great & Secret Show, and little of the blood-and-thunder melodrama that traditional Metal is built around, but if the idea of catchy, groovy Pop Metal with dance sensibilities and a prominent sense of humour appeals, you could do a lot worse.

7.0/10

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RICHIE HR