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Sodom - Code Red
1999 Pavement
Track
Listing:
1. Code Red
2. What Hell Can Create
3. Tombstone
4. Liquidation
5. Spiritual Demise
6. Warlike Conspiracy
7. Cowardice
8. The Vice Of Killing
9. Visual Buggery
10. Book Burning
11. The Wolf And The Lamb
12. Addicted To Abstinence
Line-Up:
Vocals:
Tom Angelripper
Guitars: Bernemann
Drums: Bobby
Website: crash.to/sodom Horatio's Rating:
D
Uncle Meat's Rating: B-
Overall Album Rating: C |
Horatio's Review:
I've never been a Sodom fan at all, only hearing three of their
albums, this, 1995's excellent 'Masquerade In Blood' and the
tedious 'Agent Orange' from 1989. The latter symbolized
everything that was wrong with late 80's Euro thrash, unmelodic, with
little depth and unimaginative structures. You can play with all the
speed in the world, but without those key ingredients, failure is almost
certain. Just ask Kreator. Angelripper's a trooper and
has gotten better over time, and 'Code Red', although now four
years old, is a worthy thrash statement that indicates Sodom had
caught up to Slayer in terms of sophistication, except Slayer
were playing in this manner in 1986! By 1999 few cared anymore,
outside of some tight jean wearing, cut off denim jacket and white
sneakered thrash burnout from Schalke.
'Code Red's' main problem, or asset,
is the plain Slayer rip off sound that Angelripper managed to copy.
The first time I heard this I was convinced they had stolen some Slayer
demos and added their vocals over them. The majority of the music is
blindingly fast, thrash of the fifth order. Bern(Han)emann's riffing
sounds like Hanneman and King multiplied by fifty, but never rivaling their
storied partnership. This is worth a listen, but still falls woefully
short of anything by Slayer (or even Dark Angel).
Perhaps it's the crude German vocals, always a turn off. Drummer Bobby
looks like he's about fifty six in the booklet photos, a castoff from some
70's progressive rock outfit named The Pipers Dream, known for
stunning albums like 'Autumn Fantasia- Ist Movement' and 'Thus
Spoke Oberon'. I used to think
Ian Winwood, once of Metal CD and Metal Hammer was a fool, but
I remember what he said in a 1992 issue of Metal CD while reviewing Kreator's
Renewal: 'Remember the late 80's Euro thrash scene? Wasn't it
awful? Avoid.'
Indeed. Song summaries include...
- Code Red
- Maniacal speed, near grindcore, what more should be said? How
about 'exasperated defamations, barbarian rebirth'? With
the riffing piled on the way it is, one could be fooled into thinking
they have a six man guitar army. B+
- What Hell Can Create
- A retread of the first track, maniacal speed, near grindcore.
Come on, how many ways can you describe thrash? Typical lyrics;
'the war within my pulsing brain'... B
- Tombstone
- A plodding western epic. Major yawner. D
- Liquidation
- This feels like a thrasher from 1986, due to the 'evil' riffing
which conjures up memories of some Bathory garbage like 'The
Return'. Nice blast beat going on. B
- Spiritual Demise
- Wow I haven't heard a title that imaginative in years. Fast,
but hardly essential. At this juncture the album has fallen into
the trap of most Euro thrash, repetitive and awfully bland, no song
standing out. C-
- Warlike Conspiracy
- The only conspiracy here is to send me to sleep. Did I say
this album is good? I take it back. Appalling. Just
a drone. D
- Cowardice
- It's amusing that I once enjoyed this album. I cant stomach it
now. I can't fathom why I chose to review this either. If
you could see me sitting here, listening to this mid paced thud, with
sudden bursts of speed, a lifeless expression etched on my deadened
face, you might think I had died. F
- The Vice Of Killing
- The opening riff sounds exactly like a song I can't put my finger
on. What I do know is this is plain forgery of guess who.
For that they should be arrested, stripped nude, shoved into solitary
confinement and be forced to wake up every hour like Stallone was in 'Lock
Up' by Donald Sutherland, a bright red light shining on them.
D
- Visual Buggery
- Should be titled 'Aural Buggery' instead. My ears have
been tarnished as much here as they were during the Allegiance
review. So stale, no melody, crap riffs, predictable lyrics...I
don't need to provide examples, you know it's true. D
- Book Burning
- Dude, this is fast! I take it all back. On a par with
the best of Death Angel! C
- The Wolf And The Lamb
- I wonder if there's any turkey out there who thinks, just because a
band plays fast, that it makes them worthy of praise? I'm sure
there is. Those are the same people who think 'St Anger'
blows, yet claim to love stuff like this, as they have 'cred'.
The gulf in class between Metallica and this bunch of thieves
is as large as the one between the Yankees and the Tigers. Get
my drift? D
- Addicted To
Abstinence - A wicked thrasher,
with devilish, pulsating chord changes that astound and thrill with
every note. Angelripper takes tangents that Mustaine wouldn't
have dared to in 1990. Sodom are at the top of the thrash
heap because they deserve to be. Nearly twenty years and sales
in excess of ten thousand in Germany alone have catapulted them into
the mainstream, their last effort 'M-16' reaching a position of
197 in the German Metal Heatseeker Charts, behind Gravedigger
and Running Wild. F
Horatio's Rating: D
Uncle Meat's Review:
Sodom, the German thrash legends, are back with yet another new lineup and an album full of thrash goodness. Tom Angelripper brought on two new recruits and hooked back up with producer Harris Johns. This group then went into the studio to create some much needed thrash.
As part of the triumvirate of German thrash (the others being...you know, if you don’t know then stop reading now). If you like your thrash fast and uncompromising, then you need to pick this up. German thrash/Bay area thrash. It’s all good.
Song summaries include...
- Intro
- 0:48 of sound effects some guitar and distant drums. B
- Code Red
- Now this is the way to kick off an album. Fast and faster are
the two speeds in this song. Great guitar work, but the biggest
kudos must go to Bobby for his drum work. Not so much
interesting, as it is intense. Great thrash song. A-
- What Hell Can
Create - Much like Code Red, only take the intensity
down a notch. The verse riff, particularly after the vocal line
is over, is extremely heavy. Again there is a slowed down bridge
section before the solo jumps in. B
- Tombstone
- Slower, mid-placed, plodding even. The bass lead-in in
incredible, nice and thick. The gunfire in the middle add a nice
touch. B
- Liquidation
- Opens slowly then picks up, especially in the chorus/verse. B-
- Spiritual
Demise - No real intro. The listener is just thrown
into the song. Gets much faster after the first chorus/second
verse. B-
- Warlike
Conspiracy - This song never gets out of 2nd gear.
The bits at the end are a pick up but mostly this song goes no where
fast. C-
- Cowardice
- Opens with some nice mid-riffing. The drums sound incredibly
stale on this track. C-
- The Vice Of
Killing - With a title like this, the listener should be
expecting the be hit with an ax. I didn’t get that, but this
is a pretty good song. Fast where it needs to be and slower when
it is called for. A-
- Visual Buggery
- The begining of this song had me pumping my fist in the air, but
after 2+ minuets of the some riff (played at different speeds) I began
to wonder “What is this”? The most boring 3 minutes on the
disc. C-
- Book Burning
- In the vein of Visual Buggery but the band at least tried
with this song. Shifts in tempo, new riffs (ooooohhhhhh).
Much better then the above. Bernmann definitely needs to play
more solos. C+
- The Wolf and
the Lamb - Pit Madness. A
- Addicted to
Abstinence - A short burst of anger to close the disc out.
Trying to decipher between the chorus/verse would be futile, so I will
just say that this works well as an album closer. B+
Uncle Meat's Rating: B-
Also be sure to read:
Sodom -
Better Off Dead by Uncle Meat
Sodom -
M-16 by Uncle Meat
Sodom -
Persecution Mania by Uncle Meat
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