In 1982, a young sprout from the Ruhr, enchanted by his sacred idols (Venom, Motorhead, and Tank) and unwilling to rot in a coal mine, founded a band with a friend called "Sodom": this refers to Thomas Such and Frank Testegen, respectively. With the enlistment of drummer Rainer Focke, the trio could finally start their activity, characterized by a music that harks back to their Muses but is simultaneously taken to the extreme, in the name of a raw and overwhelming sound that will remain a constant in German thrash.
The band members do not hesitate to assign themselves charming and vaguely eerie nicknames (Such becomes "Angelripper," meaning "angel ripper") and, after some lineup changes (Focke and Testegen leave, Christian "Witchhunter" Dudeck and Josef "Grave Violator" Dominic join) and a contract signed with the prestigious SPV, Sodom is ready to produce their first historic EP, dated 1984: "Into The Sign Of Evil." The record sees Such as both bassist and singer (almost a tribute to his three inspiring bands), Dudeck on drums, and Dominic on guitar.
In the intro that gives the EP its name, the cherub slasher immediately plunges us into the most demonic of infernal circles with his evil and ghostly voice; from this moment on, the profaner and the hunter will back him up, for nineteen minutes of dark sonic violence. "Outbreak Of Evil," destined to become a classic, presents those features that blend all the tracks on the record: an overwhelming and minimal thrash wherein the influence of Motorhead and Venom is evident, and a musical attitude and lyrics that confer a proto-black atmosphere to the work; also for this reason, the EP will exert a significant influence on many other bands. The presence of Tank is immediately noticeable in the track "Burst Command 'til War," which focuses on the theme of war, so dear to Algy Ward's group, denouncing it fiercely.
"Sepulchral Voice," "Blasphemer," "Witching Metal," "Burst Command 'til War"... there is no escape: the listener is battered and annihilated with every dirty guitar riff. And if occasionally we find a quiet oasis - such as the beginning of "Sepulchral Voice" - it is just a sadistic illusion. Sodom achieves so much even with tracks marked by noticeable simplicity of execution ("Blasphemer") and that rely on just a few notes ("Witching Metal", perhaps the most remarkable track of the EP). This is typical of the elite of great bands, to which Sodom - in hindsight - belongs and whose door they begin to knock on with "In The Sign Of Evil."
My sincerest thanks to wrecking crew for recommending this album to me.
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
02 Outbreak of Evil ()
It's time to die
Death stands behind the door
Satan sends his warriors
Demons break out of Hell
Shrill cries
Angel dies
Shrill cries
Outbreak of evil
With swords and axes
The fight hard
In a massacre
they feel the hot smart
None can survive
People will destroy
Souls like hell
Where demons make a toy
03 Sepulchral Voice ()
Dark deathknell call you to the throat of the
glowing hell lights of exist become extinet
and you read the epitaph of your grave
You are the chosen messenger of hell
Come execute your instruction with spell
You got magic power to all
in league with Satan for holy ghosts fall
Love to drink the blood of the slut
adore the bestial rite
eat the virgins heart warm and sweet
destroy the unborn holy meat
The Sepulchural Voice
mysterious groans torment your mind
the shadow of evil make you blind
a funeral song out of the burial place
damned you to hell from the human race
04 Blasphemer ()
Black metal is the game I play
'cause no one show me the right way
I am a bloody Antichrist, only believe in bad
Spit at the church, Evil I get
Blasphemer. . . .
Rites of death, Return to Hell
I am Satan's child, attack you with Spell
I turn the cross upside down
and read Satanic Bible with fucking grown
my life begins at midnight twelve
masturbate to kill myself
Blasphemer. . . .
I love to drink my own blood
my sin is my life in a war with god
I talk to the demons night tonight
make love and black masses in a dark shadow light
Blasphemer. . . .
05 Witching Metal ()
Witch, Bitch, no sleep in Sodom
God, Shock, last night for Satan
Spell, Hell, this fight is blind
Metal war Sodom
Wildfire Sodom
Bloodlust Sodom
Witching metal
Cries, Crime, Cross over Sodom
Fight, Might, Dust to Dust
Sinner, Winner, the fight is Blind
War, Law, Slave of Sodom
Lust, Gods, Unholy Times
Night, Light, this fight is might
Sodom! Wildfire Sodom!
We are Sodom
07 Burst Command Til War ()
War!
Nuclear warheads are ready to fight
Total destruction the only might
We are all suicide, without brain
People are running and dying in pain
Burst command til war!
The overkill is near
Nobody feel the heavy fear
Thousand megatons dynamite
Wait to kill one life
Burst command til war!
We live our life in grieved desire
Our hopeless is getting higher
You cry for freedom, but nobody hear you
The end of the world is true
Burst command til war!
War, war, war
Burst command til war
Burst command til war
War!
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