Sodom – Genesis XIX
Release Date: 27th November 2020
Label: Steamhammer/SPV
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Genre: Thrash Metal
FFO: Destruction, Kreator, Slayer.
Review By: Ken Love
Let’s get it out the way now. Sodom, Kreator, Destruction. German Teutonic Thrash trio. European thrash scene’s equivalent of the Big Four (Tankard are often included however I often struggle to include them in the company of the others). Three absolutely critical bands in metal’s history and vital components in the evolution and expansion of thrash as a global phenomenon; pushing it well beyond its US origins. Theirs is a chronology explained in almost all reviews relating to any of these bands when they release new material…. And I’ve just done it too. But that’s all I’m writing on that.
Genesis XIX is the 16th album to have been released under the Sodom moniker with iconic frontman & bassist Tom Angelripper remaining the sole founding member in the bands line up. That Sodom are still here 16 albums deep into their career is a cause for a celebration and, more importantly, they are firing on all of those nasty Germanic cylinders here too. Sodom occupy that same sonic firepit that Hellhammer, Slayer, early-Seputura, Possessed, Dark Angel even Death sit … when it’s thrashing it’s doing so in the most nasty, blasphemous and fucked up of ways, and god damn it’s fun as it does so.
The renaissance, death and now third wave of thrash metal amongst generations of young fans and bands seems to have been a proverbial fire up the arse of many of the old guard who continue to release excellent material into the twilight of their careers, with particular highlights this year from both Testament & Onslaught (Mr Bungle is also in for shout however that is a re-recording so perhaps difficult to consider in the same context). Sodom are another to add to that list.
There are a couple of cool things that instantly jumped out to me on this release. The production job here is interesting, the guitars have a slightly muddy sonic quality to them and lack the chunk and metallic heft that many modern metal records have – that pristine crunch ala Andy Sneap – yet that’s part of the charm. It feels more like a live performance recorded straight from the cabinets; it hasn’t been processed to within an inch of its life. It has a sonic quality that seems to hark back to the earliest thrash records – pre-Black album – where bands didn’t sweat sonic perfection and instead wanted something that felt live & real. They have achieved that here really successfully. There is also a quite enormous performance here by new drummer Toni Mekel who is a massive standout; his energy and power fizzes across the record peppering the album with eruptions of blast beats, fills and crashes.
If you are a fan of Sodom’s seminal material like Agent Orange, Persecution Mania, or M-16 you’re going to have a great time with this. Hellripper sounds as twisted and vicious as ever, belying his near 60 years on the planet, Araya-come-Cavalera snarl dominates the record. Whether you love the breakneck thrash of Euthanasia, Dehumanised or closer Friendly Fire; the snaking, wirey riffs across the albums’ title track or the enormous Nicht Mehr Mein Land – a song which opens with the most maniacally colossal black metal blast beats before settling into a swaggering death ‘N Roll groovefest. There is something here for most metalheads to enjoy.
Sodom again here prove they are the nastiest and most sonically warped of their Germanic brethren, and more power to them for that.
(4 / 5)
