Review Summary: Code Red is Sodom's attempt to forged some of their newer music with their past, and they really succeeds to create a heavy and cruel thrash-metal album.
Thrash-metal was first invented by
Metallica when they mixed punk and NWOBHM (New Wave Of Brittish Heavy Metal). Along with
Metallica there were three other bands:
Megadeth,
Slayer and
Anthrax. All these bands took thrash-metal to new and different levels and later the thrash-metal explosion flooded the market in the U.S. Hundreds of bands picked up instruments and started their own bands, but there were not many that lasted long in the spotlight; only the strongest survived. But what happened to all the other countries of the world during the thrash explosion? Did thrash-metal grow just as fast as it did in the states? Unfortunately, no. It didn't grow with such speed and there were not many bands that really stood out, but instead, the European thrash-metal showed a different angle of thrash-metal. Most bands in the U.S. became with time more generic and people focused only on the biggest bands, while in Europe thrash-metal was more aggressive and intense but there were, of course, more "standard" and generic thrash bands as well. Germany produced perhaps some of the world's greatest thrash-metal giants of all time, with
Sodom,
Kreator and
Destruction. They didn't became as huge as
Metallica or
Slayer, but these German bands stayed within their own sound more or less and they only made a few errors along the way. Weak albums, various line-ups and experimenting with music were some of the things that plagued these bands but all of them came back and released ferocious and modern thrash-metal albums.
Kreator were responsible for influence and technicality,
Destruction were more of an energetic and anti-religious band and
Sodom became a heavy, cruel, war-hollering band. All these veteran bands have managed to stay alive through all these years and they are still kicking *** with their high voltage thrash-metal.
Sodom perhaps didn't get so much time in the stoplight as competitors
Kreator did, but nonetheless,
Sodom is without a doubt the most succeeded band in my opinion, even if they didn't released high-quality albums all the time they still stayed within their music and front man
Tom Angelripper has always been solid member in band. This was also the only band to display several other metal genres in their material. Death-metal and black-metal influences ring throughout their work, and it's combined with lethal and raw thrash-metal. The album called
Better Off Dead would be one of their most weakest albums, as it almost stepped onto hard rock or even glam rock at some moments but the album was saved because of a few moshing songs.
Tom Angelripper perhaps noticed that his fans was starting to leave and he had to make a new move, because according to sources the band was starting to get a bit sloppy and their energy was starting to slightly fade for a period of time.
Code Red was an attempt to reinvent their old material with some of their newer music, and it was also with a different line-up the band.
Code Red perhaps sounds a bit rehashed but the variety among the songs is more than great. The album starts hard with berserker thrash tracks like
Code Red and
What Hell Can Create, and after that we have slower but heavier track called
Tombstone.
Sodom also succeeds to mould some small
Slayer influences in the three upcoming tracks, and by that I mean both in song appearance and vocal work.
Liquidation sounds like a death-forged song with a sinister yet groovy and catchy riff.
Spiritual Demise and
Warlike Conspiracy are two very incredibly catchy and head banging tracks filled with lovely thrash riffs,.
Covardice takes on a heavy but yet easy-approaching song structure, and this is probably the slowest track in this album.
The Vice Of Killing,
Visual Buggary and
Book Burning have blend of maniac riffing blended with slower, more technical riffs.
Book Burning might though be similar to the opening tracks.
The Wolf & The Lamb is another easy-approaching track with similarities with the previous tracks, it still offers a good head banging moment. The band finally ends the chaos with
Addicted To Abstinence, which is one last lethal thrash assault that takes you back to ‘’Tapping The Vein’’ or ‘’Persecution Mania’’-era.
Wow, what an album! It sounds incredible when you turn up the volume on your stereo. There were many strong tracks here; I can't actually find any major negativity about this album. The only things that would bother me a bit would be the fact that most songs (or even the whole material) feel a bit rehashed but not much though, and that would be the only negative thing. Everything else was nearly flawless; you had riff after riff after riff, and the tempo variety was perfect because the songs don't have limited drum work.
Tom is a great thrash vocalist, with his torn, harsh and raspy cruel voice giving the material a great contrast or blend between thrash- and death-metal. All the instruments sound great too; no instrument is overpowering by another and all they get a few moments to show off for a second. You have some clear bass fills here and there, chaotic and blistering solos are included and double bass kicking is shown. One thing that I thought was pretty cool was that this album felt like a prototype for their then up coming
M-16, because tracks like
Warlike Conspiracy and
The Vice Of Killing could've easily been included on that album. The complete lay-out of the songs was great, since all the bad*** songs were not just placed at the beginning or at the end. You had first some faster songs, than a slow song and later some medium paced songs.
Final judgement then: definitely not a bad
Sodom album by any means. This album shows the listener that this is a fire which is going burn for a long time; the band really manages to mould their past with a promising future. There is energy, heaviness, brutality and cruelty in
Code Red, and while it might still not be a groundbreaking album in
Sodom's career, it really hooks you...maybe even enough to make you stick to their music.
Sodom has released many awesome albums but most of them might not be great albums to begin with if you want to get into the band's music, but this album is. Get
Code Red and you will know what
Sodom is all about, and later you can basically advance to the other albums. Thrash-metal fans of all kinds should experience album, as it is a perfect all-round
Sodom album that will stick around for a long time. If you find it then get it without hesitation, because it won't let you down if you enjoy any kind of thrash-metal.
Pros
+ A perfect all-round Sodom album
+ Newcomers will get a great perspective of Sodom by this album
+ The band really succeeds to bring back the past
+ The essence of heaviness and cruelty is revived
+ Awesome variety among everything
Cons
- It might perhaps feel a bit rehashed
- Some songs could've needed a bit more fuel to their fire
Recommended Tracks
-- The Vice Of Killing
-- Addicted To Abstinence
-- Spiritual Demise
--- Book Burning
-- Liquidation
If you enjoy thrash-metal and most of all Sodom's material then this won't let you down, this album will actually receive a 4.5/5
