Sodom
Agent Orange

THE REVIEW

If I were to ask about a certain type of Metal aptly called Thrash Metal, what answers might I hear? I can try... and I would surely hear a rain of "1986!", "Slayer!", "Metallica!", "Megadeth!"... this for those who consider only the bands from the famous Californian Bay Area.

However, Thrash Metal has famous names also in Europe; one of these names corresponds to the band of "Onkel" Tom Angelripper, the Germans Sodom.
The trio, formed by Angelripper on bass and vocals, Frank Blackfire on guitar, and Chris Witchhunter on drums, initially accused of total incapacity and technical unpreparedness, made a name for themselves in the German scene with the excellent "Persecution Mania" in 1987, reaching the peak of their success with this "Agent Orange" in 1989.

"Agent Orange" is probably besides being the peak in terms of fame, also the peak musically for the band, which offers a Thrash that is very direct, without frills or strange solutions, without straying too far from the style that characterized the previous "Persecution Mania"; the dominant theme is still war, as can be easily inferred from the title, "Agent Orange", Napalm.
The devastating title track speaks precisely of bombings and Napalm, a real Thrash gem, which alternates more cadenced moments with insane blasts, where the drums seem to almost have trouble keeping up with Tom's gritty voice, but at its end, no respite, and the battle continues with "Tired And Red", incredibly fast and monotonous, leaving you breathless when it reaches an unexpected classical guitar solo, thus disproving the initial impression. And if "Incest" is a song dense with rhythm changes, so much so that it gives the impression of being made up of at least three different songs glued together, with "Remember The Fallen" appears, for the first time, a mid-tempo, and "Magic Dragon" also opens as a mid-tempo, where the Dragon in question is an AC-47 bomber, but again, surprise, here comes the insane and destructive speed of "Tired And Red", while Angelripper's cynical and fierce voice mercilessly describes the fury of the bombing to move on to the next "Exibition Bout" to speak of a theme absolutely new to my ears, bullfighting, with an obviously indignant and critical eye.

This album is a continuous alternation of speed and slowness, a continuous surprise, and "Ausgebombt" appears surprising and strange, a song with cheerful, almost punk tones, whose chorus fully expresses, for those who, as often occurs, might have doubts, on which side Sodom stands: "No Trade with Death No Trade with Arms Dispense the War Learn from the Past". "Baptism of Fire" immediately ends this cheerfulness, and once again, darkly, we dive into the atrocities of war, but the surprises are still not over, and after this last battle, the album closes with the cover of "Don't Walk Away", by the British band Tank, a cover which as usual, like a bit all the covers by Sodom, is distorted and twisted, and integrates quite well within the album.

In summary, "Agent Orange" is an absolutely varied album to be placed immediately alongside the masterpieces of 1986, an album inevitably not recommended for those who prefer a more melodic Thrash in the Metallica-Megadeth style, and more suitable instead for lovers of hard Thrash (Slayer, to be clear) and Death. An album that surely deserves several listens before it can be fully appreciated.