“We’re not a political band. We write songs about the things we hate.”

Nothing new for vocalist Tom Angelripper and his veteran thrash trio, Sodom, but the hate has never sounded this good. In his ongoing pursuit for the ultimate ten ton delivery, he conscripted producer / guitarist Waldemar Sorychta to record new album In War And Pieces, with spectacular results. And while this sounds like the cliché lip service that boosts every new album to cross a journo / fanboy’s desk, the simple fact is that Sodom’s trademark and traditional old school thrash has taken on an added dimension. Shades of Slayer left and right, classic Kill ‘Em All vibes, In War And Pieces is a record with a world class stomp that hasn’t been heard from Sodom until now. Not that they haven’t written songs to match in the past; Sorychta just happened to rip things wide open.

Angelripper, naturally, isn’t about the comparisons or the accolades. “Does it sound good?” is all that matters.

“It sounds a little bit old school, some people have said it sounds like the Agent Orange album (from 1989). I don’t really hear that, but okay, people hear different things. What’s the difference between old school and a modern sound, anyway? I think Agent Orange sounds as if it has a modern edge. It’s got a big production, the songs are very dynamic. The important thing for me on the new album was the sound of the drums. I listen to some albums and the drums sound like a computer or triggers, and I wanted a big and natural drum sound. For the guitars I wanted to have them closer to the ear, if you know what I mean, and I wanted more aggressive vocals. I always want to make Sodom sound like a band is supposed to sound it was very important to me to have Waldemar working with us for this album.”

At first glance Sorychta seems like an odd choice as producer for the album given that he made his name as a producer working with bands like Lacuna Coil, Moonspell and The Gathering. There’s a tendency to forget he’s a guitarist as well, heading up Grip Inc. through the ‘90s and now Enemy Of The Sun, both acts offering up much heavier fare.

“He knows exactly what we want,” says Angelripper, content with his choice. “I’ve known him for years and I really like the production work he did with Grip Inc.; they always had a good sound. Waldemar told us that it doesn’t matter what kind of metal he’s working with – thrash, death metal, gothic – the important thing is that it sounds good at the end. He was also very interested in the actual songs on the album, so we did pre-production three months before we recorded anything. He had the chance to really listen to the music, work on some arrangements, and then we went into the studio. It wasn’t even a real studio; it was a rehearsal room because I didn’t want to be paying 1,000 euros a day so that we had to work quickly to get out before we went broke (laughs). I had the money to pay Waldemar, and we had as much time as we needed to record.”
“Bernemann (Bernd Kost) was very fortunate to be able to work with Waldemar,” he adds. “The guitars were recorded at Bernemann’s house, and Waldemar had a lot of great ideas to help make the songs even better. Some of the guitars are more melodic than what people have heard before, but the end result is great. The guitars are very aggressive, there is a lot of riffing and solos going on. The stuff is amazing.”

Angelripper is known for being hands-on with every aspect of Sodom, while Sorychta has years of experience and a wall full of hit records to prove he knows what he’s doing behind the board. With that in mind Angelripper admits they clashed on occasion, but no egos were harmed during the recording sessions.

“Yeah, that was very hard. Waldemar wanted to have everything at 100%, so when I did the vocals I had to sing every line four or five different ways. He’d say ‘Try something that sounds like Tom Araya…’ or ‘Do a traditional Sodom vocal…’ I never had that before, but Waldemar wanted to have options when he started mixing the album. When we were working with Harris (Johns) in the past, all I needed was one or two takes and we were done (laughs). Waldemar knew exactly what I wanted, though, and I still made the final decisions about what we used in the songs on the album. I’ve gotten a lot of reviews from the press, I’ve seen lots of guestbook entries and Facebook comments from the fans, and it’s really surprising because I haven’t read any bad critiques. The new album has great songs on it, but I think the production is the main thing for a lot of people.”

Sodom’s music is as far from rocket science as one can get, and Angelripper has never seen any reason to change their approach. With thirty years of music under his belt one would assume the towering thrash spokesman has had to contend on occasion with being bored of his own craft.

“We’re a fun band, we have a good time,” Angelripper says. “You’re right, though. If you’re in the studio or rehearsal space two or three times a week it seems that things could get boring, but we’re professionals. We know what we have to do, we know how to take the good and the bad. Most important, though, is that we’re good friends. That’s the secret.”

Making the creative process for In War And Pieces an uncomplicated tour of duty…

“It’s very easy. The songwriting process is the same way now as it was in the beginning. We go to the rehearsal room, have a beer, smoke a cigarette, talk a little bit, and start a jam session. We might have a guitar riff, I have no lyrics so I just sing anything, and that’s all we need to get started. I know other bands that write songs using drum computers, sending ideas back and forth using email and mp3 trading, but we don’t want that. We can’t work that way. We need the flair and the smell of the rehearsal room (laughs).”
“When we start rehearsing and writing new songs we never think about what we’re going to do next. We don’t talk about needing to have a certain number of fast songs or not as many slower songs. For me, doing thrash metal means having the freedom to do what I want. Sodom has always been that way and we’ve never been told by the record companies or the press that we should do things in a certain way to suit them. People want a good Sodom album, that’s all, and that’s what they get with this one (laughs).”

Bringing things full circle, Angelripper hammering yet another nail into the world’s coffin with his prose and poetry on In War And Pieces.

“I can’t change the way things are but I can write about them,” he says of his lyrics. “With everything going on in the world these days, like this fighting between North and South Korea, it’s a dangerous place. We’re talking about the possibility of World War III. I watch the news and I see this stuff about more German soldiers dying in Afghanistan, the economic crisis in Germany and other countries, all this stuff makes me angry and sad. Even the small things, like the fact that the kindergarten classes in the schools in the town where I live closed down because there’s no money. When I write lyrics it’s very emotional. I hate cliché lyrics, and I write lyrics for myself first. I wish I had more time to be involved in the political scene, but I don’t so I can’t change the things that bother me. But I can scream about it (laughs).”