Ok, here we go with Sodom’s next effort. Sodom Obsessed by Cruelty is more of the same after the release of their first EP “In the Sign of Evil“. However they there were some marked improvements in both the song writing ability, the production and the musicianship. There were apparantly 2 versions of this album released this is the first and was released in the US by Metal Blade Records whist their European label made them redo the recording and it came out with an extra song (“After the Deluge”)
Upon putting this album on you can immediately hear an improvement in the overall sound, performance and songwriting abilities of the band. They’re still taking a fair bit from the likes of Venom and Motorhead but that’s cool, the band was definitely starting to develop into a sound of their own by this point. The first song, “Deathlike Silence” opens up and you can really hear the band starting to adopt their thrash sound with a change in the style of riffing quite noticable. (INTERESTING NOTE: A young Euronymous from Mayhem was so taken by this song he named his record label after it). The album continues in similar vein for the rest of the album and some better choruses in songs such as “Equinox” and “Obsessed by Cruelty” made the songs more memorable. I gather the metal press at the time weren’t taking the band seriously but in my opinion this was a fairly decent step up from their debut EP “In the Sign of Evil”.
Despite the improvements the band has now made I have to say I still find the recording a little subpar, but it’s a lot closer to being of a standard where the band would appeal to a wider fanbase than their first EP was. The cover art is complete crap. Surely someone could have put a little more time and energy into that aspect of the band? Their first EP had decent artwork. Why couldn’t they get that artist back? You have to remember there was no internet at this point, so punters could really only either buy compilation albums to hear new bands or read about them in magazines. At the time an albums cover art was (especially for an underground band like this) the first impression many fans will get, and I can’t imagine this cover doing much for them.
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