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An Exclusive Interview with Sodom
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Tom Angelripper from Sodom is joining us today on MP3.com, and you've given us a call today to talk about your new self-titled album that just came out last week in Europe and will be coming out in the United States on May 9. Tell us something that we need to know about this new album. Yes, what can I say about the new album? I got a lot of reviews last week, and people compare it to Agent Orange, and a lot of people say it's the best album after Agent Orange, you know. And I'm not agreeing because we have so many albums between Agent Orange and the new one. But I think it's one of the best Sodom albums ever. We tried to do it a little bit more melodic, you know, more based on the vocals, and I think it's also important to say that we found a new producer. Our ex-guitarist, Andi Brings, produced a couple of tracks of the new album. And, yes, I'm really satisfied in the end. I got a lot of reviews, and I hope it will be successful in Europe and also in America. Maybe people are hearkening back to the Agent Orange era because of the trueness--I guess, for lack of a better word--of Sodom's really keeping true to your original style from the early days? Yeah. Yeah, that's right, because we always do the music we want to do, you know. There is no record company or whatever who are going to tell us what to do, you know. We always keep the same thrash music, and we always try to keep the spirit from thrash metal--from the '80s, you know. We always try to get better from album to album, to write better songs. You also cannot compare it to M-16, you know, because I think this lineup is really strong at the moment. We are together for 10 years, and that is also the reason why we just called it Sodom, you know, because we are the band Sodom, with Bobby on the drums and Bernemann on the guitars, you know, and that's the reason why we just called it Sodom. So, when we get the original cover artwork for the new album and there was no title in it, you know, and I printed it out. I go to the rehearsal room for the band, you know. We talk about the cover and we realized we don't have any title, and then Bobby came with the idea that we are the band Sodom, you know. We are together for 10 years. I think it's a kind of birthday album, but there is no special message behind because it's untitled, you know. It's just a new album and, for me, it's the best album, you know. There is kind of a message there by just calling it Sodom, which is appropriate, in my opinion, as a fan. Yeah, it's not really a message, you know. Just call it Sodom, you know. I think every band did it one time in a career, kind of compare it to Metallica's Black Album, or whatever. And I take a phone call to the record company to get them informed that we just want to call it Sodom, you know, and they say, "Why not?". It doesn't matter how is an album called. It's just that the music is good, you know. It's great. I see that one of the tracks "Axis of Evil" is kind of a commentary on our American president here, George Bush. Maybe. It's nothing against the Americans, you know. I just use words like "axis of evil," when George Bush is going to tell the axis of evil is going transatlantic. Germans never want to support the war, you know. For me, as a songwriter and writing lyrics, it's a good inspiration, you know. It's a good song title. It's also like "Buried in the Justice Ground" or "Bibles and Guns". All what the American needs is a Bible and a gun. For me, it's stupid, you know. But as for me as a songwriter, it's a good inspiration, you know. I always write about the bad things in the world, you know. I don't want say that that George W. Bush is a bad man in the world, but he always tries to split the world in the good one and the evil one, you know, and that's stupid, in my opinion.

You never find any political opinion in the lyrics, but, for me, it's a good idea to write a song title, you know. I always try to describe the bad things in the world, you know. When it happened to the World Trade Center at 9/ll, I was really shocked, you know. And one day later, I started lyrics about it because it's really...I think it's good for a metal band or a thrash metal band to write about the bad things in the world, you know.

I cannot change anything. I'm not politically active or whatever, you know, but I try. [Being] the singer in a thrash metal band, you know, gives me the chance to scream it out, you know. And the message is always really simple: Stop the war and want to live in a peaceful world, you know. Given that and the fact that I would agree as a fan that this album is very true to Sodom and Sodom's style and the style of thrash metal or German thrash metal, I've read recently in some statements that you've made about some of your contemporaries' recent albums after kind of a long downtime--and that would be Venom and Celtic Frost. Do you feel a sense of responsibility to the music that you helped pioneer? I guess my question is that versus your opinion on the newest Venom and Celtic Frost records. Yeah, but I never told that they are making a reunion just to make money. That's not true, you know, because I'm a big Venom and Celtic Frost fan, you know. If I'm going to tell something it's because I'm a metal fan, not a musician, you know. I was a little bit disappointed of the new Venom album because it's not...like [their] comeback, you know. You cannot compare it to Black Metal or Possessed or Welcome to Hell, which is my favourite album ever. And I was a little bit disappointed when I listened to the new one but just as a metal fan, you know. And also Celtic Frost, I was a big Celtic Frost fan from the beginning, and the band is coming back after 16 years, you know. I never mind because I don't have to buy this album, you know. I get it for free, but I was a little bit disappointed. It's no more the Celtic Frost I remember back, you know, in the '80s, you know. But that's just my opinion as a metal fan, you know. If you talk to a metal fan--to any other metal fans--they like it or they like it not, you know. I'm never going to tell something about that [being] a reason to make money or whatever, you know. I think this band is getting really supported now and it's OK. But I want to get more respect from the magazines in Germany and from the promoters, whatever, because Sodom is a band who is still alive after 25 years, you know, and never stopped doing music. So, I want to have more respect from the music business, you know. In Germany that's a problem. The metal scene is getting really big and really commercial, you know. They push a lot of other bands, which are not really metal bands, like Rammstein. You see a lot of type of stories in metal magazines, with these kind of bands on the cover. These bands are not really metal bands, you know. I just need more respect from the scene, you know, because Sodom never stopped doing the music. I think the scene does respect you. So, a job well done. Is this just what flows from you naturally there's no problem trying to stay true to who Sodom is to people? Yes, we cannot do other music, you know. We never get any inspiration from the music scene, what other bands do, and I can't explain it because we never think about what we're going to do the next time in the rehearsal room. We just go to the rehearsal room making sessions, drinking some beer, and all talk about everything and just start writing songs, you know. And there is no special idea how you can write new songs, you know. We always try to get better from album to album. But we never want to change our style, you know. I don't want to have any Sodom fans disappointed about a new Sodom. We have to try to get more melodic, better songs, you know, but stay aggressive and keep the revolution--what metal means, you know. It's very difficult to explain in English, but we never mind. We just do what we want. That is our secret, and Sodom is also a band who has always tried to get in contact with the fans, you know. After the show, we go from the stage, going to the fans, making signing sessions, whatever. We are no rock stars, you know. We are not a band going back to the hotel or going back home after the show. We always want to be with the fans and that's what the fans like. You know, we are just metal fans making music for one hour on the stage. That is the difference. That is a big difference to Sodom and all the other bands in the world. Are there bands today that you think are fulfilling the same spirit that Sodom has helped create? Yes. I know that Sodom inspired a lot of younger bands, especially bands coming from Scandinavia, you know. If you're going to read any interviews with black metal bands and all, they all get inspired by Sodom. But they do another music--they do really black metal music. I think Sodom...the first two records was kind of black thrash metal, you know.

But if younger bands want to form a new band, you cannot do thrash metal nowadays. I think thrash metal is a product of the '80s, you know. Thrash metal--in this area where I live or Kreator comes from or Assassin or Violent Force or whatever. This is a typical area where thrash bands grow up in this time, you know. And I think thrash metal is the product of the time of the '80s, you know. You cannot do the same music like Destruction, Kreator, Sodom, whatever because you can try to make metal music--thrash metal music--but it's always...it's completely different to...what we do, you know.

The most bands who try to do the thrash metal, it's a kind of metal-core or hardcore bands. I think only the real thrash metal bands came from the '80s. What do you think specifically about the '80s and maybe even your geographic location that inspired you guys and Kreator, Destruction, and other bands that you mentioned to this style of music? I mean, are there a couple incidences or things that you can point to that you think really was a catalyst for the German thrash metal? Yeah, I think this typical German thrash metal, you know...in this area, we live here like Kreator and Sodom, you know, the people are really poor and the parents are coal miners. I was a coal miner, too, for 10 years and it's really rough to live here, you know. It's really aggressive sometimes so I think the real thrash metal just came from where we come from, you know. But also in the '80s, the metal scene was like a big family. We were all big friends with Kreator, and the metal scene here was something really special. I remember when going to school, you know, in my school class, I was the only one who listened to metal music. Metal was not really popular in those times, you know. But metal was something really special and because that was a kind of evolution. You know, my parents and all the other parents hated thrash metal music. When I started working in a coal mine, my father said, "You have to go to the coal mine to get your safe money.” You get the money every month, you know, and never stop working. But I couldn't...I couldn't go...I couldn't live without music. So, I quit my job in '89 and, being a professional musician, you know, that was the best decision I ever took. I got the money from a record company every month, for my music and for me a dream come true, you know, and especially when you live in this area, you stop working in a coal mine where everybody works. That was really something special to me and...yes, then I found the time to make tours and studio sessions and so I could be a professional musician, you know. But it's also very difficult to explain. If you live in this area, you know, the metal music is really...the metal bands coming from this area are really rough, you know, really...really heavy metal music. There is no power metal or true metal bands. The most bands coming from the '80s were really thrash metal bands. So, you're saying just the workingman's metal basically? The workingman's metal, yeah, it's all the coal miners' metal, you know, because it's really...the whole scene is really rough. You have to work really hard to get your money and all the stuff. Also, my father, my grandfather worked in the coal mine. So, when I started making music, I was inspired by the first Venom record or bands like Black Sabbath, Witchfinder General, you know. That was the only metal music I wanted to do. I never could do any power metal or heavy metal music, whatever. The thrash metal music was the music from this area. So, are you fortunate enough today to not have to maintain a regular day job as well? No. No. No. Just being a musician because it's a full-time job, you know. You cannot do any other thing else. I cannot go to work. To be a professional musician, you have always something to do, and nowadays there's all the promotion to do. You have to go on tour. I came back last week from East Europe on tour with Sodom, and you cannot go to work, you know. I don't want to have to go to work. I want to sleep in the morning and I want to wake up and I want to make my music, whatever. So, I'm really glad that Sodom is part of the metal scene and still active and still really successful. You're on a lot of these festivals for the summer over in Europe. Is that true? Yes, there are a lot of festivals. We're going to play Rock Hard Festival and maybe the Earthshaker Festival, and also in Europe, we're going to play Gates of Metal, Sweden Rock, or Monsters of Rock in Bulgaria, and we go to Japan for a couple of shows, and we'll try to go to Australia. There's a lot of shows around this summer, you know. So, we want to start a Sodom tour in the end of this year, because you cannot tour in Europe in the summer because of all the festivals, you know. In Germany, we have hundreds of festivals. So, it's better going on tour in the autumn or at the end of the year. But we don't have any plans what kind of tour we're going to do, if we're going to do a thrash metal package or we take some younger bands with us, you know. So, we'll see. In the next months what we're going to do is playing all the festivals, recording a couple of shows for the second DVD, which will probably come out next year, you know. So, we have a lot of work to do now. You did about a week's worth of dates in the US last January, and I think you have just two dates scheduled over here upcoming. Is it more difficult for you to tour in the United States or...I mean, I'm glad you even come even for the few dates that you can, but is there a big reason why you don't do an extended tour over here, or is that something you might be planning, too? No, I don't know. We have to find a serious promoter, you know. It's also I can say...it's a little bit [about] money because I have to bring...when I come back from tour...I have to bring a little bit of money back home, you know. The promoters say, "Oh, you can go to America, but you don't get any money for it." So, if I come back from...after six weeks, you know, without any money...because I have a family. I have two kiddies. I have a small house to pay and my car. So, when I come back from tour without money, I have to explain it to a woman, you know. No, but it's not the big problem. I think when the Sodom shows are sold out, you know, really successful, I know that the promoters get a lot of money. So, I just need a little bit of money to bring it back home. Well, that's fair. And that's the only reason why we don't go to America. But I want to have a tour in America because this couple of dates is nothing, you know. We did two or three shows in US America, three in Canada. It was really successful. So, I want to try to make a tour next year--a bigger tour, maybe three or four weeks. But it's not only the money. I live for my music. I don't have any other chance to get money, you know, just making music. I don't want to have big money. I just want to have a little bit to live from my music, you know, for my family and my kiddies. That is the only problem. So, I want to go to America because I like touring, you know, and it's my life. Well, it's only fair that you should be compensated for your work. We enjoy it, and you should make money from it, and that's a fair statement. And I want you to go home with some money when you come over here. So, that's fair. But it also works when I go to South America. I bring money back home. In South America, it works. I don't know, if you're going to play BB King's, whatever...in other clubs...you know, it's sold out and really high ticket prices. I always think about it and where is the money going. So, we need a little bit of money for it. We are musicians. We do the job on the stage. We are in the middle of the stage, and we do the concert. We do everything, you know. So, we need a little bit of money. Well, that's something that American metal heads, we kind of hang our head in shame...or maybe shame is not the right word, but, you know, we do understand the situation, and we do know that the amount of metal fans and such here can't necessarily support the big tours and the festivals like you guys have over there. I mean, Germany alone, as you mentioned, has scads of festivals, and they are all successful because everyone comes. We have a lot of metal fans here, of course, but we just don't have the numbers. And we do understand that. And it's sad for us, but we make do, and we appreciate the shows that you guys do come over and do. Yeah, the difference is if American bands come to Germany, maybe Slayer or whatever, they get a lot of money, you know. That is the big difference. If an American band goes to Europe, making concerts, festivals, whatever, you know, there is a big difference. I don't want to have the fans want to say that Sodom just goes for money. That's not true, you know. No, I don't think you sound like that. I just need a little bit to pay everything. We have to pay the crew. We have to pay this and that, you know. So...and I want to have a little bit of money for myself. That's the only thing. Of course. And it's well earned, so I hope you come home with some. You mentioned the Lords of Depravity: Part 2. That's still coming out? Yes. I don't want to give promises now because the first DVD...it's very, very long, you know. We needed two and a half, maybe three years to get it finished in the end, because it was so much material. The record company...and for us, they want to have just a concert with a big stage, and my idea and a former producer’s was to make a complete history, you know. But, yeah, there is so much material. You cannot imagine how much work it is. But we're still working. I have a second DVD. I want to go to Berlin next month, starting cutting all the stuff we want to record at some shows. We want to record the whole tour with a cameraman obviously. And I hope I can bring it out in...I don't want to give a promise. I think next year in February or March, whatever, you know. But it definitely will come out, you know. But I don't want to give a promise. I cannot give you a special release date, you know, because we have so much material. And this second DVD will also get about five hours running time. There is a lot of material on the Part 1, and so I can imagine what you had to scour through to even come up with that material. It's a cumbersome DVD. I can't even say that I've seen all of it because I skip around. But it's all great stuff. It's a really great DVD, and the packaging and everything is excellent. Yeah, and the second DVD is going more to the music. Because the first one is more historical information about the ex-members. That was the most important for me for this DVD, to get the ex-Sodom members, you know, to talk about the good old times, why they left the band and whatever. And the second one, we have more videotapes and DVD tapes and whatever. And so we can go more to the music, you know. I also want to do a kind of road movie that the fans get a chance to look behind the scenery of touring, you know, what happens on tour. It's not just a band on a stage or the band sitting in a bus drinking a beer or whatever. There is so much things happen on tour, some tragic things, somebody's getting ill, you know, and some shows get canceled, problems here, problems there. So, that is what I want to do--the kind of road movie, you know, that the people are going to see what is behind the scenery...in the big stage, whatever. That sounds great. Part 1 is already a really great fan package, you know. I mean it seems like you thought of everything. And I can't imagine any fan not being satisfied with that. So, Part 2 just sounds like even more great stuff to look forward to. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. We've got a lot of wonderful reviews for the first DVD, you know, because no band did before. You know, there is maybe Iron Maiden the Early Years-- maybe, they have done something like this. But this first DVD, you learn something from the metal scene from the '80s. I got e-mails and reviews from metal fans who'd never been interested in Sodom but they're going to buy the DVD because they were really interested to learn something from the good old times. I just have one other little quick question for you, and I will let you go have some beers or whatever you're doing there. What is the inspiration for taking on the name "Angelripper"? Is there a story with that? Not really. I think it was a kind of fashion, you know, giving names like this a lot. like Chris Witchhunter, you know, when we started in '82 forming a band. There's also the band name, Sodom. I remember that my mother came to my room and she tells me, "Your room looks like Sodom and Gomorrah," because everything was dirty and things lying around. I never forget this word "Sodom," and that's why I chose this band name. In these times, bands--like metal bands or whatever, --always tried to find special names. And I was "Angelripper." I don't know. There's no special meaning behind it--or Chris Witchhunter, whatever. Aggressor was the first guitarist, you know. There is no special message behind it, just a kind of fashion in those times. Well, of course, we all have our nicknames. [quoting] "You have Angelripper, you are the singer. I am Chris Witchhunter," you know. Nowadays, I wouldn't change the name, you know, because people say Tom or say Angelripper, whatever. Nobody thinks about it. Nobody gets translated in Germany...what it means, you know. There's no German translation for that? Yeah, it's Engelsaufschlitzer. Oh, well, that's a mouthful. I can't say that. Somebody was ripping off angels, whatever. I don't know what it is. I can't explain it. Well, it's a good name. Well, I really appreciate your time, Tom. Do you have anything that you want to add or anything you want to say to the fans before we close? Yes, I want to thank them for the support all over the years. I know we have a lot of fans there in the US America. And we go on tour, and I get a lot of e-mails while we're touring the area, you know, just two shows, it's not enough. I remember the first time when we played in Milwaukee Metal Fest. The first time ever, you know. That was a really bad organization and bad promotion, you know. We worked with Jack Koshick at that time. So, we came back to Europe really pissed off of Americans, you know. But the last tour we did with Finntroll, it was really successful. Everything was well done, you know. So, I think we have a good promoter over there now in America. So, we'll get a chance for a bigger tour, you know.

We have a couple [dates]...we're going to play at BB King's next time in August or September. I don't have the date now. We're going to go to Los Angeles for two dates, and then we go to Mexico and try to make a South America tour, you know. Great. But in next year, we're going to plan a big US America tour. All right. Well, I really appreciate your time, and the album's great, and the American fans can look forward to finding that in the stores on May 9. So, go out and get the new Sodom record. Thanks again, Tom, and look forward to seeing you play live. We hope to see you in San Francisco since that's where I am. Yeah, thank you. I hope to see you soon. Thank you. OK. Great. Good-bye. See you. Cheers. Thank you.