{"id":1501,"date":"1987-04-01T00:00:55","date_gmt":"1987-04-01T00:00:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/?p=1501"},"modified":"2013-04-27T20:44:45","modified_gmt":"2013-04-27T20:44:45","slug":"feature-sodom-mf23","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/feature-sodom-mf23\/","title":{"rendered":"SODOM – Twins Of Evil (MF23, 1987) | Features \/ Interviews @ Metal Forces Magazine"},"content":{"rendered":"

SODOM – Twins Of Evil<\/strong><\/span><\/span>
\nMike Exley<\/span>
\nMetal Forces, Issue 23 (1987)<\/span><\/p>\n

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Sodom (l-r): Tom Angelripper, Frank Blackfire and Chris Witchhunter<\/b><\/em><\/span><\/div>\n<\/td>\n
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Okay, I want to be quite blatant here. There\u2019s one thing that really grabs my vitals when I read some of our rival metal magazines, and this is the refusal to allow coverage of all types of music in the thrash scene. They prefer to side safely with Metallica or Slayer<\/a>. But I say, why not cover more bands who have been working hard for years, but never even attracted as much as an album review in some cases. As for an interview, well that would seem to be out of the question, wouldn\u2019t it? For example, take three guys from Essen; Tom, Christian and Frank, better known to the world as \u2018Angelripper\u2019 (vocals \/ bass), \u2018Witchhunter\u2019 (drums) and \u2018Blackfire\u2019 (guitar). The band formed early in 1981 and took the name Sodom, but since then finding an article on them has been like finding a needle in a haystack. Now I have the chance to put another needle in the haystack, and find out about the background to a band who have received some of the harshest criticism known to man for their style of mayhem on the metal scene. Admittedly Sodom\u2019s career has not been a smooth ride, but they deserve a chance to have their say just like anyone else. So, what were the early beginnings of the band?<\/p>\n

Tom: \u201cOh, that\u2019s a long story, because there were several line-ups in the early years. Christian was in the band right at the start.\u201d Christian: \u201cYes, I formed the band with a guy called \u2018Aggressor\u2019. You remember, he wrote some of the tracks on our first EP, In The Sign Of Evil<\/em>. But then I left the band, and while I was away Thomas joined the band as the drummer (at which point Tom laughs).\u201d Tom: \u201cOh dear, I was really bad!\u201d Christian: \u201cLater I rejoined the band and Tom switched to bass. That was the first complete line-up. That was about six years ago, and as you know quite a lot has happened since.\u201d<\/p>\n

Indeed it has; Sodom are presently working with their fourth guitarist in six years, but the radical style of the band\u2019s music has still been retained. Tom: \u201cWell, I suppose you could call it radical because it really isn\u2019t like anyone else. We didn\u2019t originally have any influences because we wanted to create our own style from the beginning, we wanted to play Sodom music and we think that we have managed to continue to do that ever since.\u201d<\/p>\n

Christian: \u201cI suppose a love of Venom and Mot\u00f6rhead brought us together in the first place, but I don\u2019t believe that they really influenced us. They were the first to create the same power metal style that we play, and I suppose we did get some lead from that. But you can\u2019t really put a label like thrash or speed on our music, we just try to use power and technical ideas to create an original sound.\u201d<\/p>\n

Many bands who started with the same ideas have found it necessary to go more commercial, so what are your views on that? Tom: \u201cThere are so many speed and thrash metal bands around at the moment that you have to have an original style to make it. Some people go commercial, but we stick to what we\u2019re doing because we believe that it is original anyway. Basically, we play what we want to play because I don\u2019t think it\u2019s important whether you play fast or slow so long as you have your own style and it\u2019s powerful. We don\u2019t say \u2018we must play this one slower\u2019, if we have a good idea we\u2019ll do it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Christian: \u201cThe feeling of the music is the most important thing. Obviously we want to sell LPs, but we\u2019ve never said \u2018Oh, we\u2019ll sell more albums if we play this one slower or sound more commercial\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

Does it anger you that some of the press have so far refused to take your music seriously? Tom: \u201cNo, not really. I think that that is a problem for the particular magazine, not for us. We don\u2019t write music for the press, we write it for our fans who have supported us so far. At first people said that our music was very simple and just noise and energy, but we want to play this type of music and our fans still support us, so we don\u2019t care about that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Christian: \u201cCan people really say we can\u2019t play our instruments when I\u2019ve heard so many bands that aren\u2019t even as good as we were when we started. I\u2019ll admit we weren\u2019t very good back in 1981, but now we have got more technical and much better. I have heard bands that are so bad that they make our music sound like Europe. They just have no idea how to play. I\u2019ve heard that we were labelled as \u2018the worst band in the world\u2019 \u2013 well I suggest those people listen to some of the rubbish around now.\u201d<\/p>\n

Do you think that unfortunate label keeps you out of the press? Tom: \u201cIn a way, yes! I think the fact that we get so much criticism is because magazines want to promote their own image by criticising the band who has a label like that just to be like everyone else. I hope we can change some opinions with this new EP (Expurse Of Sodomy<\/em>) and get away from that label, because it\u2019s just not true.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Tom Angelripper<\/b><\/em><\/span><\/div>\n<\/td>\n
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Every time you release material you seem to have a different line-up. Why do you seem to have trouble keeping a stable line-up? Tom: \u201cI don\u2019t know really, we\u2019ve just been really unlucky with our guitarists. Peppy (\u2019Grave Violator\u2019) wanted to do other things while we needed someone who was committed to the band, so we replaced him. Wulf (\u2018Destructor\u2019) was only with the band a short time, basically because he was not a good musician, and now as you can see we have \u2019Blackfire\u2019. I hope this line-up will last forever.\u201d<\/p>\n

How did Frank come to join the band? Tom: \u201cHe was playing at the same rehearsal room and Christian decided to approach him to join the band. He had a similar taste in music to ours. He liked Slayer, so we approached him and told him about the record deal and the promotion that we were hoping to put together. He was really a great guy so he\u2019s now in the band.\u201d<\/p>\n

Do you think that making the Obsessed By Cruelty<\/em> album with Wulf was a mistake? Tom: \u201cYes, now that we have Frank in the band, I do think it was a mistake, because Wulf is a terrible musician. I cannot say anything nice about him as a musician because he cannot play. He didn\u2019t have the power or the technique which Frank has, and this made Obsessed By Cruelty<\/em> a weak album. Wulf really could not interpret our ideas.\u201d<\/p>\n

Christian: \u201cWulf has some ideas, but he couldn\u2019t play them and he didn\u2019t like the hard style of music we wanted to play. Frank is totally different because he\u2019s a better guy, a better guitarist and he drinks. Wulf would never touch beer!\u201d (Great peals of laughter from all assembled!)<\/p>\n

Has Frank\u2019s experience with his old band helped your development? Tom: \u201cIn some ways, yes, because on this EP we have progressed and got a lot better and more technical on the musical side. I think this EP is a progression from In The Sign Of Evil<\/em> rather than from the Obsessed By Cruelty<\/em> album. Although Frank wrote with us on this EP and played all the guitar, thrash is quite new to him because he played just heavy metal with his old band. Because of this experience he did have a lot of useful ideas he wanted to use.\u201d<\/p>\n

Is the production of the Expurse Of Sodomy<\/em> EP, which should be out by the time our readers read this, better than that of Obsessed By Cruelty<\/em>? Tom: \u201cObsessed By Cruelty<\/em> had some great ideas on it, but it was not a good album. Not only was it ruined by Wulf\u2019s bad playing but also it was damaged by the production of Horst M\u00fcller, because he doesn\u2019t understand this type of music. This EP is much better because it was produced by Harris Johns who had worked with Helloween. I think he is the best producer for our style of hard power metal, because he understands it. The production is very clear and very powerful. Also, he didn\u2019t get as drunk as our other producer.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some people have said that the EP may show a new side to your style. Is this true? Tom: \u201cYes, I think so. This is the best record we\u2019ve ever done, and we think our fans will really like it. Everything about the record is so much better than before and I believe it does show different parts of our style. \u2018Conqueror\u2019 and \u2018Sodomy & Lust\u2019 are fast and technical, while \u2018My Atonement\u2019 is a slower track with some excellent ideas.\u201d<\/p>\n

Do you think the EP will maintain the difference you have had from other German bands in the past? Christian: \u201cYes, I think so. When I listen to a lot of German bands it seems to me as though they all want to copy other people. Every time I listen to a band I hear a riff by Slayer or Metallica. We\u2019ve always been different, and our own style is very important to us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Where do the ideas for the lyrics come from? Tom: \u201cI use a lot of books. I am interested in the occult, not just the part about Satan but also fantasy and dreams, and I use nightmares a lot in my lyrics. I try and write lyrics which are hard to understand and an interesting challenge to the listener.\u201d<\/p>\n

Your progress has been hampered by personnel changes up till now, so where would you like to see the band going with this stable line-up? Tom: \u201cI think this line-up will stay together for the rest of the duration of the band. This line-up is the best for us and for the fans as well, because it\u2019s so much better than we had with Wulf. When Frank came to the band we were able to put his ideas together with ours and we made a huge step forward with our style. Sodom will be a force to be reckoned with now.\u201d<\/p>\n

Christian involved himself with other projects when you didn\u2019t have a guitarist, but I guess that is at an end now? Christian: \u201cYou\u2019re right, it is. I was free at the time of the Destruction<\/a> tour, for example, and that\u2019s how I came to do that after Tommy left. SPV asked me if I would do it, and as I\u2019m unemployed I decided to take it because the money was good. It was good fun and I got a lot of good live experience, but I won\u2019t be doing it again because I\u2019m fully committed to Sodom now. Now we have Frank in the band I really want Sodom to succeed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Were you asked to stay with Destruction after the tour? \u201cYes, I was. They couldn\u2019t find a professional drummer with long hair and good technique, so they asked me to stay. We got on really well, but I could never move to Southern Germany because I\u2019m committed to Sodom and to Essen, and also it\u2019s really boring down there. I believe they have a drummer now though because the one that plays on their EP is staying on (Olli). He\u2019s the jazz drummer Schmier told you about when you met us on the tour.\u201d This brings tremendous fits of laughing to everyone concerned. \u201cNo, you mustn\u2019t laugh, he\u2019s a very good drummer.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Chris Witchhunter<\/em><\/b><\/span><\/div>\n<\/td>\n
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How much success are you having outside Germany? Tom: \u201cWe\u2019re having quite a lot actually, mostly in the USA rather than in the rest of Europe. Our name is largely still a cult name because we\u2019ve never been there, but our albums sell very well over there. In The Sign Of Evil<\/em> was a big success over there. The European market is quite limited compared to the bigger US market.\u201d<\/p>\n

How about the rumours of your US tour with Destruction? Tom: \u201cYes, that\u2019s a definite possibility but nothing is concrete yet. We\u2019d love to go over there because of our big following there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Christian: \u201cI hope we can go because originally we were supposed to go over there in late 1986, but with no guitarist we had to cancel it and wait \u2019til now. I\u2019m sure we\u2019ll be on the road in 1987 though, because we also want to do a German tour.\u201d<\/p>\n

So, Sodom are back. It seems to me that there\u2019s a new enthusiasm in the band with \u2018Blackfire\u2019 taking over the guitar. The new EP is now available and it will be coming out on a limited edition picture disc. 5,000 copies should be produced to start with, and depending on sales it may be brought out as a normal EP. Pick up a copy and you\u2019ll find a changed band. All the promises of good production and better musicianship are true, I can assure you. Sodom are ready for action and raring to go. The names of \u2018Angelripper\u2019, \u2018Witchhunter\u2019 and \u2018Blackfire\u2019 should finally make it after all the hard work of the last six years, and they deserve it.<\/p>\n

Interview taken from Metal Forces, Issue 23 (1987)<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SODOM – Twins Of Evil Mike Exley Metal Forces, Issue 23 (1987) Sodom (l-r): Tom Angelripper, Frank Blackfire and Chris Witchhunter Okay, I want to be quite blatant here. There\u2019s one thing that really grabs my vitals when I read some of our rival metal magazines, and this is the refusal to allow coverage of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23,89],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1501","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-features","category-sodom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1501","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1501"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1501\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11368,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1501\/revisions\/11368"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1501"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1501"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1501"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}