Ok, here we got with SODOM’s Second full length release Persecution Mania (but the fourth release if you include the EP’s I’ve reviewed here) and this is by far the most polished and accomplished album the lads had released to date. While Sodom had established themselves with a cross over death / black metal sound by this point they’d definitely gravitated to a more thrash sound.
The Album opens up with the straight down the line thrash of “Nuclear Winter” and it’s immediately obvious the band mean business here. This is a huge step forward for the band, the band sound far more polished and everything comes through niceley while still maintaining an underground and natural sound. The band cover Motorhead’s “Iron Fist” on this and it’s a really cool version, with Tom Angelrippers bass sounding like Lemmy’s but with death metal guitars and vocals. It’s different enough to keep it fresh but true enough to the original spirit of whats going on to keep everyone happy.
The album continues in a brutal thrash vein with “Persecution Mania” and “Enchanted Land” until “Procession to Golgotha” which has a very eerie doomy feel to it. It also provides a bit of a break in things as does for the first half of “Christ Passion”.
The last couple of songs “The Conjuration” and “Bombenhagel” have a much punkier Motorhead feel to it, which again keeps it interesting and adds a bit of dynamics to proceedings.
This is a great album, at the time this came out you have to remember Metallica had charted with “Master of Puppets” and extreme metal was now starting to make waves and Sodom had positioned themselves rather well to take advantage of the new interest that the Big 4 of thrash metal had injected into the next level of the scene.
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