A re-release of sorts, The Final Sign of Evil is a re-recorded version of Sodom’s debut EP, In the Sign of Evil, with the line-up of that album intact (Tom Angelripper on vox/bass, Grave Violator on guitars, and Chris Witchhunter on drums), and seven bonus tracks that were written in that time period, but never released. Supposedly, they were to be included on In the Sign of Evil making it a full album, but were left off due to time/financial restrictions (I know I read this somewhere, but when trying to confirm it, I came up with nothing).

To be honest, I’ve never heard In the Sign of Evil (nor anything prior to Agent Orange for that matter), so I can’t really make any comparisons between the two sound/production wise. Primitive, dirty, raw and possibly even sloppy are words that come to mind when thinking of how to describe The Final Sign of Evil. This older material has a proto-black metal edge to it, mainly in Angelripper’s vocals, and of course the to be expected punk-ish vibe running through out, but is more pronounced in “Where Angel’s Die” (which provides a bit more variety with it’s war march drums that fade into a doom-y opening), “Hatred of the Gods”, and “Ashes to Ashes”. “Bloody Corpse” and the majority of “Sons of Hell” take a slightly slower, more mid-paced approach to things when compared to “Sin of Sodom”, which slots in nicely beside the freak-speed In the Sign of Evil original tracks such as “Blasphemer” and “Witching Metal”.

All in all, the newly surfaced tracks here are cut from the exact same cloth and offer nothing new from In the Sign of Evil, but for die-hard fans of the older Sodom material, there’s seven new tracks for you to sink teeth into and slobber over.

[Visit the band's website]

---

Comments