BW&BK Exclusive - SODOM Frontman TOM ANGELRIPPER - "I Always Thought We Had Good Songs, But I Was A Bit Surprised By How Good The (Old) Material Was"
October 10, 2007, 16 years ago
BW&BK; recently caught up with SODOM frontman Tom Angelripper to discuss the band's new album, The Final Sign Of Evil, which features re-recordings of the material from band's classic first EP, In The Sign Of Evil, plus seven bonus tracks, all of which were originally written during the In the Sign Of Evil era but were never officially released. The following is an excerpt from the interview:
“Chris (Witchhunter/drums) had a problem with it, so we told him he’d get a contract with SPV so he could make a bit of money off of it,” Angelripper reveals. “It was a heavy situation working with him because of the alcohol abuse and all that stuff. It was a struggle (laughs). Chris didn’t want to do this album to help me, he just did it for the money. The problems really came when we were recording because he just couldn’t play like he used to. He needed to take breaks in the studio and the rehearsal room, which is why it took two years to get this album finished. He played all the drums on it, though, every single note. We thought about getting a session drummer of having (current Sodom drummer) Bobby (Schottkowski) come in, but I wanted Chris because he has his own style. I wanted to make this album as authentic as possible.”“It was very exciting,” Angelripper says of the experience as a whole. “We had to make a few new arrangements, but the songs were about 90% finished in most cases. I always thought we had good songs, but I was a bit surprised a how good the material was. When we were writing the original EP we weren’t worried about being technical, we wanted to make songs that you heard once or twice and never forgot them. It was like sitting in a time machine. When I was singing the songs, I had the headphones on and it was great, it took me right back to 1984."
Watch for the full story in BW&BK; # 107
The tracklisting for The Final Sign Of Evil is as follows: 'The Sin Of Sodom'*, 'Blasphemer'**, 'Ashes To Ashes'*, 'Witching Metal'**, 'Sons Of Hell'*, 'Burst Command 'Til War'**, 'Where Angels Die'*, 'Sepulchral Voice'**, 'Hatred Of The Gods'*, 'Bloody Corpse'*, 'Outbreak Of Evil'**, 'Defloration'*.
* bonus tracks
** songs which were on the original version of In The Sign Of Evil
