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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