Sodom are a classic German thrash metal band that's been an enormous influence since the early '80s. Their earliest releases were raw, early black metal and they reached their peak with
Persecution Mania and
Agent Orange. Their subsequent albums like "Get What You Deserve" and "Masquerade in Blood" were really sub-par to the point of being boring and sloppy.
Many consider Sodom to have thrashed it out continuously without interruption throughout their career but the truth is they branch out here and there.
"Til Death Do Us Unite" is the album that should have come after
"Better off Dead" or after
"Tapping The Vein". This is the return of Sodom to its thrashing ways and also adding a modern edge to the music, all in all its more like a thrash/crossover sound here.
The year was 1996, Tom Angelripper didnt get the success he was hoping or for the album
"Masquerade in Blood". He was writing a new album by this time and knew he had to make some changes in the band. The current line-up wasn't creating the sound he was hoping for. So he changed both of the other band members for this album and the record label. Sodom left Steamhammer and went to GUN records, which may not have been the best thing to do. However the good thing was that they re-united with producer Harris Johns who said that he was really tired of all the average metal of the 90's until he heard this album.
Sodom never had a stable line-up from the very beginning,
Strahli and
Atomic Steif were removed from the band this time and
Bernemann (Bernd Kost) (Ex-Crows) and
Bobby Schottkowski - Drums (ex-Crows, ex-Tom Angelripper) were brought in. The line-up hasn't changed since then, the band has seen much success and its been eleven years with this perfect line-up, a Sodom fan couldn't ask for more.
Line-up:
Tom Angelripper: Vocals/Bass
Bernemann: Guitars
Schottkowski: Drums
The album kicks off with 3 of the best songs that Sodom had made in the 90's, "Frozen Screams" an all out thrasher, "*** The Police" which was their most famous music video and a highly controversial song and "Giesela" which is a German song. There is some non-thrash here too, "That's What an Unknown Killer Diarized" and "'Til Death Do Us Unite" are examples of horrible 90s metal. The albums low points. "Polytoximaniac", "Hazy Shade of Winter"
(the Bangles & Simon & Garkunkle cover), and "Hey, Hey, Hey Rock'n Roll Star" which has one of the most hilarious solo's I've heard are examples of Sodom's signature rocking sound.
Angelripper can do some pretty harsh vocals which causes the music to border on death metal at times, but its not seen so much on this album. Certainly not as much as on the previous three albums.
Pros:
Fast paced and catchy thrash songs!
Some good hard rocking songs here too.
Good production.
Much better than the previous two albums.
Cons:
Not a complete thrash album for the normal thrash lover, this album deviates here and there.
Some songs aren't catchy and may seem a little boring.
3.5/5
To conclude, I had heard this CD only once before and remember liking only the first three songs, I heard it again the other day and to my surprise I discovered that I really liked a lot more songs than I had before, so if you think this album was just OK, don't fear, it gets a lot better after you listen to it again. So in short I recommend this to all thrash fans, it really has some good songs on it and the best Sodom line-up since "Agent Orange".
