Album Review: Sodom - The Arsonist
Reviewed by Sam Jones
Sodom. Few bands in thrash today possess such gravitas. Whenever these guys rally to release a new album, it’s always this wondrous event. Formed in 1982 out of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, Sodom are credited amongst Kreator, Tankard and Destruction as one of the Teutonic Big Four, aiding Germany in putting thrash metal on the continental European stage when the US, at that time, seemingly owned a monopoly on its creation. With their 1985 In The Sign Of Evil EP, and their 1986 album debut Obsessed By Cruelty, Sodom we’re incremental for injecting thrash with a more blackened aesthetic and refined as Persecution Mania and their legendary Agent Orange opus saw daylight. The following decades have seen Sodom take numerous forms with multiple lineup changes yet the band have never failed to consistently churn out one strong effort after another and upon entering the 2020s their output has seemingly increased all the more. Sodom, renowned for their unstoppable stamina and relentless drive to create and destroy, returned as a four-piece in time for Genesis XIX, with Frank Blackfire’s first guitar credit on album for the first time since departing the band after Agent Orange. Now, after releasing a Best Of Compilation in 2022, Sodom return once again with the same roster for their eighteenth full length album, The Arsonist, once more through Steamhammer, marking almost twenty-five years releasing records through the label, sporting astonishing artwork from Polish artist Zbigniew Bielak, no doubt a callback to Agent Orange’s legacy. Slated for a June 27th release date, The Arsonist is amongst my most anticipated releases of 2025.
It wouldn’t be a thrash album without a small introductory piece would it? But it’s far from inviting; it’s harrowing, sombre, dread-laden. Blending perfectly with the first real track Sodom hurl us straight into the fire and with a production that feels firmly ripped out of 1989; where many acts have incorporated those massive soundscapes and production values to their releases, Sodom continue championing this smaller yet compact style that sees drums hit with blunt force and riffs where not a single lick or turn in the songwriting is lost. Curiously, The Arsonist sounds as crushing as it does because it’s as if the band removed all the air out of their recording studio to leave just their performance and this utter absence of residual soundwaves. When a bass line or riff is played, there’s nothing to carry it on over to the next sequence, it simply plays out and ends. What this does is swell the overarching impact Sodom hit you with as they effectively punch you with every second of the record. The Arsonist is all thrash, zero fluff.
Speaking of which, The Arsonist is a textbook example as per why Sodom have remained relevant and ferocious across the decades: nowhere throughout their songwriting do they implement phases where they meander into more avant-garde or lofty ideas that would remove our attention away from their primary performance. The moment you tune into a Sodom record you understand what they’re doing, where you’re being taken and what the band will provide next. Granted you won’t know exactly what Sodom will do next but you perfectly understand the vibe that Sodom play with. It’s old school thrash that knows it’s old school thrash, playing just that because they know what you’re here for. In a way this is a golden strategy for Sodom since they can play what they wish, even the most minute, stripped back riff pieces, but they’ll still have people attentively listening in. The Arsonist also doesn’t vie to be the loudest record this year which is a blessing in disguise; volume is great and we as metal fans adore cranking it to the max but scaling things down enables us to experience the totality of Sodom’s plans for this record. I think the mix is ideal for the soundscape Sodom sport for you truly feel the crunch that goes into their music.
The longest-standing and sole original member of Sodom, Tom Angelripper has become one of German Thrash’s most enduring idols. Given the man is now in his early sixties it makes it all the more amazing that he can still churn out vocals with that signature blackened snarl as strongly as he could even just two decades ago. I do think the fewer instances of the high-pitched screeches could be attributed to his ageing vocals as those specific bellows aren’t as numerous herein. With that said though, his vocals are otherwise flawlessly replicated as they have been across every record on their discography. Sodom are far from a young band today and I have observed their tempo is not as ruthlessly rampant as one might expect; this slower tempo is reflected in Angelripper’s vocal performance as he’s evidently leaning towards a steadier performance perhaps to safeguard his voice or, this is simply the direction Sodom intended with The Arsonist. Let’s make no mistake, this record is fast and effortlessly takes you along for the ride but it’s a little more reserved here. It won’t fly off the handle as readily as Genesis XIX did, and when the pacing intensifies it’s forever under the stern control of the band. As Sodom records go this is a firmly more controlled outlet for destruction wherefore every time they rip through your chest it’s done with careful deliberation. Every strike they deliver is far from sporadic; it’s targeted, laser-focused.
I think their bass is strongly pronounced as whilst they’re hammering away at us, you can pick up on even the smallest bass drum or even Angelripper’s own bass playing. Now I appreciate this because it demonstrates the band, as we’ve covered, aren’t approaching The Arsonist to just detonate upon every track. The steadier tempo, more deliberate style of songwriting lets the mix breathe and thus give each instrumental element their due. It’s powerful when the bass drums fire on all cylinders but there are equally as many times where the bass drums heavily relax and thus give the riffs and other drum patterns their chance to shine. Toni Merkel has been doing wonders on the kit and The Arsonist is only cementing how inspired his hiring was. Now the bass work isn’t thrown in our faces but at least we acknowledge it’s there, in the background, just waiting to jump out and be heard.
In conclusion, if Sodom’s past, recent releases have been the band attempting to blow up at every discernible moment then The Arsonist is a more calculated assembly of what goes into that detonation. The Arsonist isn’t seeking to destroy us at every instance but rather take us along for the ride, entertaining us thoroughly across its near fifty-minute runtime. Rather than the missile coming down, raining fire, this record takes us through the process of what goes into that belligerent slaughter. This time round Sodom have wished to steady themselves, saving their most explosive pieces for select phases of the record whereby their impact and blast wave would be the most devastating. As a result, when such tracks do come our way their performance is all the more scintillating, scorching, the fiery fragments of fabric clinging to our flesh. There’s plenty to unpack here and enjoy and though The Arsonist is not the fastest record Sodom have released lately, it’s only a touch slower and still harbours all the hallmarks of an exemplary Sodom record. Sodom are a band forty-three years old; the fact that they can still deliver records to this consistently high standard, whilst shifting their songwriting around whether it be ripping, crushing or otherwise, is a testament to their longevity. It’s why even in 2025, a new Sodom release still garners extensive attention from millions of fans.
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