Sodom And Genesis

After picking up the recent releases from old 80's metal bands like Raven and Accept, it got me thinking about some records from last year that I never bothered with at the time. One of those albums that I wanted to check out was the new Sodom record.

Sodom released a couple of classic thrash albums back in the 80's, and while I've checked out some of the band's other stuff over their sixteen album career I just find that I don't return to it like I do with Persecution Mania and Agent Orange. The band has been through a number of lineup changes over the years, but with the return of Frank Blackfire on guitar...and some very positive reviews for Genesis XIX...it kind of had me interested to see what the hype was all about. After previewing a couple of songs on Spotify, I was quickly scrambling and trying to track down a copy of the vinyl.

This record is an all-out German thrash attack! Clocking in around 55 minutes, it is a bit too long...and cutting a couple of the songs would have made this album an absolute crusher...but I still can't help but be impressed by this shit. It is cool when older bands can still pull off something like this...a total throwback to the Sodom glory days.

Back From The Dead

Mercyful Fate released Time in 1994. At the time of it's release, I had pretty much distanced myself from anything Metal. I was getting pretty immersed into the Ebulliton Records scene of politics and political correctness. Music was serious business for me at the time, and the theatrics of a band like Mercyful Fate were ridiculous. While I would still catch the occasional show by Strife or Mouthpiece, for the most part I was going to see shows by scruffy hardcore punk bands in an empty room behind a health food store in Alston, Massachusetts. It was a great way to distance myself from the tough-guy bullshit that was going on in the hardcore scene at the time. These shows were pretty small, roughly only 50 people at the most, and there was no dancing what so ever. Slamdancing was seriously frowned upon in the scene, and therefore we all stood there with our arms crossed, bobbing our heads to the music and watching the band. I saw a lot of really cool bands during this time...like Shotmaker, Bleed, Weston, Rye and Cable, but to be honest, the whole thing was pretty pretentious and way too serious (except for those early Weston shows which were always great fun). Over the next couple of years, the Youth Crew revival kicked in and reminded me how much fun hardcore could be with stagedives and sing alongs. What is the point of music if it can't be fun...and damn it, Metal is fun. Time was re-issued through Night of the Vinyl Dead early in 2008 on white splatter vinyl. Mine is number 309 of 500 pressed.

When I started checking out the back catalog of Night of the Vinyl Dead, I saw that they had released a couple of Sodom albums on vinyl. I hadn't heard this band since I bought Agent Orange in 1989. Code Red was released 10 years after that, and in looking into their discography I was surprised to see that they were still around and releasing albums. I downloaded the albums that the Vinyl Dead had to offer and holy shit, I had forgotten how much fun Metal could be. Sodom are great, and here they are still true to their roots and blasting out some totally ripping German thrash. Code Red just blew me away, and I started searching eBay for the vinyl. Released on red vinyl, and mine is numbered 310 of 500 pressed.