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Rating: "Metallica sold out after the Black Album!" "Slayer without Lombardo are not Slayer!"
"Megadeth sold out after Countdown To Extinction!" "Anthrax should be replaced by Testament in the Big 4!"
And what do these bands have to do with a review about Sodom, you might rightfully ask? Well, a few months ago, I was involuntarily added to a Facebook group for Thrash purists, if we can call them that, who were spouting the phrases above like a mantra to anyone who dared to question their beliefs, and among them was yours truly, trying in vain to say that "Youthanasia" isn't such a terrible album, that "God Hates Us All", although, personally, the last great Slayer album, is too underrated, and on it went. However, I've never heard a bad word about one band, Sodom. Sure, no one is without fault and missteps, but the career that Tom Angelripper has managed to sustain for nearly 40 years is impeccable, with his own personal yet simple idea of maintaining a Thrash style that seems to have changed little over the years, but that's not quite the case.
After releasing genre masterpieces like "Persecution Mania", "Agent Orange", and the underrated "Tapping The Vein", Sodom entered a decidedly more punk-oriented phase that did not yield the expected results, especially in terms of sales. Too many bands at that time were trying in vain to branch into different genres to attempt a sort of reclamation of past popularity, just mention Kreator, Exodus with "Force Of Habit", or the systematic downfall that Sepultura experienced at the end of the nineties. Finding themselves in a similar situation, Sodom returned to a sort of call back to their more violent works, coming out in '99 with "Code Red". A title as simple as it is prophetic!
Exactly, because if you're used to associating Sodom with that mix of Thrash and enhanced melody, a formula that seems to please many bands in recent years, steer clear. "Code Red" is probably the most direct, genuine, and violent record of the German band. No long-winded compositions, no eternally long intros, slowdowns or anything else, just forty minutes of pure Thrash Metal. It's thanks to works like this that Angelripper will be able to excellently replicate the same formula two years later, with the great "M-16".
Returning to "Code Red", the album immediately stands out not so much for the attitude of the songs but for the raw, dirty production that gives the tracks that personality that has always distinguished Sodom, almost lost with the previous works before the album reviewed here. Just the impact of the Titletrack is enough to dispel any doubts, with a Tom Angelripper who gracelessly screams "CODE RED!" with spine-chilling emphasis. Not least is the earth-shattering drum performance by Konrad Schottkowski on tracks like "What Hell Can Create" or the explosive "Addicted To Abstinence". A compact album, then. The risk, however, in cases like these, is that many songs might sound similar to each other, but this doesn’t happen here, at least if one listens to the album carefully. For example, it ranges from the tight riffing of "Spiritual Demise" to the mid-tempo "Cowardice", where Angelripper stands out with his bass and an absolutely formidable vocal performance, in a positive sense.
"Code Red" at the time was a godsend for Sodom, who were at risk of fading into oblivion. This was also the second work featuring Bernemann, until recently the guitarist of the German band, who helped give the sound a refresh and brought Sodom back to the forefront. And for those like myself, who find the latest works not only by Angelripper but by many other bands in general, which lean more towards melody, hard to digest, there are always many other albums to take refuge in... and "Code Red" is one of them.
Tracklist Lyrics and Samples
02 Code Red (03:55)
Belonging to an alliance
For better or for worse
Disloyalty gets punished
If you tear down the wall
Your strength of will, built on sand
Pootprints on your face
No dream and no reality
Will save you from yourself
No dream and no reality
Will save you from yourself
Code Red...
Discriminated without permission
Against the chosed one
Who was your bother hand in hand
When the war began
Infecting total facism
To a crawling wimp
They let you run the gauntlet
And worship their defeat
They let you run the gauntlet
And worship their defeat
Code Red...
Exasperated defamations
Barbarian rebirth
Mobilized the inner beast
Indulge your natural curse
Reclaiming of your dignity
Privacy lost in cries
Unheard, pounding screams of hate
At the wall of lies
Unheard, pounding screams of hate
At the wall of lies
Code Red...
04 Tombstone (03:55)
In the desert plains
They ride
Two faced killers on the battle line
No defeat
One kind deed
And bullets to your brain
Here they wanna go to sleep
To wait the coming morrow
Looking for a lucky strike
Everlasting sorrow
Hearts of granite, eyes of steel
No faith appear to be within
Following the promised land
Unmerciless and grim
Tombstone
Republicans
Against democrats
The good, the bad, and the ugly
Martial law
Covered up
Return good for evil
The cowboy conspiracy
Will find a wicked end
Meeting on the battleground
Under threat of death
Inseminate with hatred
Now the guns decide
Who broke the law
Surrender or fight
Tombstone
Blood on the ground
Lead in the air
The war has just begun
O.K. Corral
Side by side
To kill the dirty bunch
A brother murdered brutal
Ambushing yellow rats
Now they have to pay the price
Selected for revenge
Malicious and blind
No use to hide no place to run
Wendetta burns inside
Until his work is done
Tombstone
07 Warlike Conspiracy (02:49)
My vacant art just imitate
A vacant nameless life
The knowledge of the victory
With vervent demonized
I'll bring up all my biggest guns
For those who never mind
Submission and duplicity
Don't want to lose my stripes
Warwhoops sounds from far beyond
In duration of my sense
My urges are revealed
The trade of war it makes me tense
Abilities to a man
Not firing a shot
Repentence of my inner soul
Can't help me to forget
Warlike Conspiracy
Nobody hears my inner voice
Imploring to his grace
I turn my servile face to god
But his face was turned away
My comrades diving hand in hand
The bullets struck 'em down
I followed them without a fear
The mating call of war
Warlike Conspiracy
My vacant art just imitate
A vacant nameless life
The knowledge of the victory
With vervent demonized
My comrades diving hand in hand
The bullets struck 'em down
I followed them without a fear
The mating call of war
09 The Vice of Killing (04:21)
Bad menace
Bloody taste
Hold him in a vicelike grip
Disordered life
A rabid dog
Blinded by deceit
Abhorrence of the paltry and human remains
Moronic sentiments are born to be expectorated
Immacualted beauties just a kind of blasphemy
And everything that moves is all the energy for him
The vice of killing
His soul was crippled in the past
The vice of killing
No therapy will never last
Unsolicited
Change of heart
Inspired by the gloomy legends
Hemorrhage
Pouring out
Just an absurd gadget
Concentrated
Hungry thoughts
Malevolence incurably fused
Terrified
'Cause the truth
Infested with immoral abuse
Abhorrence of the paltry and human remains
Moronic sentiments are born to be expectorated
Immacualted beauties just a kind of blasphemy
And everything that moves is all the energy for him
The vice of killing
His soul was crippled in the past
The vice of killing
No therapy will never last
Dreadful pain
Passed away
Just watching for another game
Segregated from
Normality
Psychotic morbid brain
Mischievous greeds
Strange desire
Craving for the victim's wine
Feasting on
Their despair
Unheard screams adorn his evil shrine
Abhorrence of the paltry and human remains
Moronic sentiments are born to be expectorated
Immacualted beauties just a kind of blasphemy
And everything that moves is all the energy for him
The vice of killing
His soul was crippled in the past
The vice of killing
No therapy will never last
13 Addicted to Abstinence (02:06)
I'm just a prowling maverick
And detriment to health
Cutthroat competition
Desultory to myself
Scary vulgarism
Unfathomable cursed
Perpetuate my memories
Incombustible words
Addicted to abstinence
Protruberant intestines
Exhilerated sight
Notorious dinginess
Coming from behind
I put you to the sword
Gasp your vomit out
You'll never reach the shore
Defigured like a scrag
Scary vulgarism
Unfathomable cursed
Perpetuate my memories
Incombustible words
Addicted to abstinence
Protruberant intestines
Exhilerated sight
Notorious dinginess
Coming from behind
I put you to the sword
Gasp your vomit out
You'll never reach the shore
Defigured like a scrag
Scary vulgarism
Unfathomable cursed
Perpetuate my memories
Incombustible words
Heinous and destructive
Balanced on the edge
Rancerously cutting
He's dangerous and sledge
Addicted to abstinence
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