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Sodom: Tapping the vein

15/10/09 || Habakuk

“Tapping ze vein” is in a strange position in Sodom’s discography. Before it there’s “Better off dead” which expanded the horizon set by “Agent Orange” in many ways but hampered its own efforts by a weak, thin production. When looking at the big picture, one might now be inclined to think that “Tapping the vein” serves as some form of connection from this to the “Get what you deserve”-, “Masquerade in blood” and “‘Til death do us unite”-albums that, for the most part, deviate from the traditional thrash formula quite strongly. It’s not. I however get the impression it might be a bit overlooked from today’s perspective, possibly due to its unlucky position just prior to the “strange” Sodom outputs. Which is a shame, as the album merges the virtues of its two predecessors, becoming what “Better off dead” might have been able to be: A gritty, genuinely heavy yet still relatively varied and entertaining slab of thrash.

The production is a major part of that and a complete u-turn on the clean road paved by “Better off dead”, rolling it over (and “Agent Orange”, for that matter) and leaving some dirty, dirty 4×4 tyre marks in the process. Riding the responsible truck are fat, chunky guitars, a mean, loud bass sound and drums strong in the mix. The songwriting on the other hand is just as fast, thrashy and dynamic as on the 1990 predecessor and in the strong parts even stands up there with “Agent Orange”, the song. The title-track as a prime example is probably my favorite piece off “Tapping the vein” with a climatic build-up, great riffs, fun lyrics that simply work with Onkel Tom, and a thrash break to die for (”…tepping de vein, uäh!”).

What holds the album back from higher honors is its comparatively weak start, with a couple of the first six songs being alright, but not much more than high-quality fillers. They manage to set a fast and heavy pace with the odd cool riff or two (which Andy Brings in general definitely deserves some praise for), and the skip button can put on some well-deserved dust while “Tapping the vein” is in the player, but apart from that a few of the early songs pretty much fail to leave a huge impression. That being said, we also do get a few songs that use the same formula more wisely, the trademark fun German punk-inspired song “Wachturm”, a slowly pounding quasi-“Remember the fallen”, a bunch of heavy asskickers spearheaded by the title-track that lead the album towards its end, and the almost eight minute long groovy closer to make up for the not-so-spectacular initiation. Actually, if the whole album had the quality on display in the last four songs, it would easily surpass “Agent Orange”. It doesn’t quite manage to do that, but as it is it still breaks up the declining pattern after said album until “‘Til death do us unite” rather nicely.

To wrap this up, it is definitely less influential and less basic in its approach, but in terms of quality, “Tapping the vein” as a whole is up there with our beloved defoliant, should definitely not be overlooked but instead be found in the shelf of everyone mildly interested in Sodomy (and lust). This is reflected in a strong:

8.5

Information
Released: 1992
Label: SPV
Website: www.sodomized.info
Band
Tom Angelripper: vocals, bass
Andy Brings: guitars
Chris Witchhunter: drums

Tracklist
01. Body parts
02. Skinned alive
03. One step over the line
04. Deadline
05. Bullet in the head
06. The crippler
07. Wachturm
08. Tapping the vein
09. Back to war
10. Hunting season
11. Reincarnation

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