### Sodom: Witching metal

#### 23/12/10 || Habakuk

Wow, just wow. I mean, wow. It was never a secret that old Sodom is a little weird, but have you ever listened to it? Those who were around in ’82 need not answer, but the younger bunch. Have you actually listened to it and made it through? It’s almost impossible to sit through these 17 minutes of absolute crap, haha. I bet the Black Metal crew will stand up and defend this as a masterpiece of raw evil power of grvmness, but seriously – If you try to tell me that you sincerely (!) enjoy this for the music, you are a) lying or b) deaf.

The best thing about this demo is the marching intro, because it can be clearly defined as music. Those are the easy 32 seconds. The rest is three guys with not the slightest of ideas about what they’re doing, playing what they picked up from listening to Venom. There is no such thing as production, as this must have been recorded with some tape deck or I don’t know (at least they have the excuse of not having access to anything else, unlike the kvlt bands of today), but it sounds absolutely fucking horrible. And that’s really just the production.

The actual music shows the guys didn’t even know what a 4/4 bar is, let alone write a riff accordingly, and it didn’t matter to them, because everything works with a thrash beat plus drum fill at the end of every “riff”. This is seriously stupid music in the truest sense of the word. It’s nothing but recorded incapability. I don’t know if it was courage or not knowing better, but letting something like this leave your rehearsal room is quite a statement. Everything about this sucks. The only redeeming factor for the avid listener is the historical value and the possibility to have a very, very short laugh at this.

It certainly gives an insight into the state of the scene in Germany at the point in time – I mean, these guys actually got fucken signed after their second demo (by who, a monkey that received banana pills for correct picks?), which showed only minimal progress towards something resembling music. The reason for getting a contract must have been being “extreme” and nothing else. Impossible.

Now don’t get me wrong, I believe Sodom turned to one of the best bands ever. I even enjoy the live version of “Witching metal” on “One night in Bangkok” massively. However, this demo here is absolute shit. It strikes me as an absolute miracle that they ended up where they are today when it all started like this. Thanks, unknown monkey at Steamhammer. Waiting over. Approach dispenser.

(obviously Sodom don’t have to die, but you catch my drift here.)

- Information
- Released: 1982
- Label: None
- Website: www.sodomized.info
- Band
- Angelripper: vocals, bass
- Aggressor: guitars
- Witchhunter: drums

- Tracklist
- 01. Devil’s attack
- 02. Witching metal
- 03. Life from Hell
- 04. Poisoned blood