Sodom
Press Conference

18.11.2010

The press conference attended by Sodom mastermind Tom Angelripper and guitarist Bernemann did not reveal any secrets. It did not give rise to any revelations, and no all-original questions were asked. Most of the time the discussion focused on the band’s upcoming album, Tom’s yet another fun project Die Knappen and beer. As the band’s new album, “In War And Pieces”, was not only upcoming, but also unavailable for free download at the moment of Sodom’s arrival in Russia (of which an attending reporter complained aloud), beer somehow overshadowed all other issues. Nevertheless, the musicians tried to answer all questions sincerely, even though some of them were definitely standard and expected. The most interesting moments of this conversation are captured below.

Let’s speak about your newest album “In War And Pieces”. You said that it’s as wide-ranged, as powerful and as typical as any Sodom album. What should we expect from this album? *

Tom Angelripper: I think it’s a typical Sodom album, but it has a better sound. I don’t wanna compare it with any other album. Now we have a better production, we had a good producer, Waldemar Sorychta, and I think it’s a best production since “Agent Orange” (1989). But as for the music it’s the same. Of course, it’ has some more aggressive or more melodic parts.

Please, tell us about the lyrical direction of this record. *

Tom Angelripper: It’s the same, you know. I write about bad things in the world, about war, it gives me the chance to scream it all out – about the things I hate. You just have to watch TV or read in the newspapers what happens in the world, and there are very bad things – terrorism, religious fanaticism and stuff. That’s what I wanna write about. I think a thrash band has to write about these things. I hate these cliché lyrics like other bands. Don’t wanna tell any names, just Manowar - that’s what I hate.

Why are you so concerned with war themes?

Tom Angelripper: I was in military service. I wasn’t at war but it’s a good inspiration for writing lyrics– it’s a very bad thing if soldiers are gonna die in Afghanistan, even the German ones. I like some movies about war, about Vietnam. It’s a very bad thing, but it’s a good inspiration for writing lyrics. I just describe how bad the war could be. You never find any political opinion in my lyrics. But I can scream it out, “Mr. President, stop the war!” or “Get the soldiers back home!”

Do you think that your lyrics can change anything – stop the war, for example?

Tom Angelripper: No. I’m not politically active, but I can scream it out, that’s what I can do.

Can you compare M 16 and AK 47?

Tom Angelripper: I think M 16 is a better gun. It was specially designed for the Vietnam war and AK 47 you can find all over the world. It’s the most selling gun in the world.

Don’t you want to write a concept album about World War II?

Tom Angelripper: I don’t want to do any concept album. I think every war is the same, maybe just the war of nowadays can be a more hi-tech killing. My grandfather was at World War II, he was fighting in Stalingrad and he told me some stories about it. It was very sad what happened there. It’s a good inspiration, too, but I don’t want to write lyrics about World War II, that’s not enough.

This time you worked with Waldemar Sorychta and even called him the fourth member of the band.*

Tom Angelripper: No! He is a producer and not a fourth band member. In the end we make the decisions about what we wanna do, but he did help us to get a better sound. He didn’t change anything, not a single song or arrangement.

This year you played in Kavarna, Bulgaria, with Kreator and Destruction on the same stage. What you can say about this performance?*

Tom Angelripper: It was great! We also thought about a tour with Kreator and Destruction, but it’s difficult because they have different record labels, booking agents and publishers. It’s music business. We want to do it, but when we’re ready, Kreator’s in the studio and so on. Maybe we will at least do a couple of more shows together.

Bernemann: It was a great moment. When we arrived in Bulgaria, I didn’t know that Destruction would also be there. I only knew that Kreator was playing at that show. We enjoyed the evening, we had some beers together and had a lot of fun with the boys from the other bands.

Tom, please tell me about your side-project Die Knappen. How did you get an idea to form this band?*

Tom Angelripper: Do you know soccer team Schalke-04?

Yes!

Tom Angelripper: We wrote some songs about Schalke because we hopped last year that Schalke will win German championship but they never got it. Then we said, “Forget it!” We’re also good friends, so we also wrote some songs about coal mining… that’s what it is, you know. But you cannot compare it to Sodom or Onkel Tom.  

Die Knappen play a kind of punk rock just like another your project Onkel Tom, so what was the reason to form another band?*

Tom Angelripper: Yes, a little bit these projects are similar. It’s a little bit of punk, rock’n’roll… The main differences are in the lyrics. The lyrics of Onkel Tom are about drinking, being together with your best friends, going to a bar and drinking beer. It’s the best you can do. 
With Onkel Tom we have put a lot of new songs together. We are in studio right now and recording the drums. We are starting to record guitars next week. I hope we will get a deal, so the album will come out in February. We have about twenty songs, some of them are cover songs… You cannot compare it with the first Onkel Tom album. It’s heavier, there’s more music, I have a second guitarist now in the band.

Tom, I want to ask you a very important question. You are the king of beer. You drank a lot of “Zhiguli” beer today, so what do you think about this kind of beer?

Tom Angelripper: It’s shit. (everybody laughs)

It’s the most promoted beer in Russia.

Tom Angelripper: This one? By the way, at the airport we got a beer called “Bavaria”, and it must be from Holland! We came from Germany and it has the best beer in the world, so when we go out of Germany – to America, Russia or whatever - beer tastes like shit. In Germany there are no chemicals in beer, it’s very clean, but there’s so much stuff in this beer. All these chemicals are forbidden in Germany, it’s the law – no chemicals in beer. But this taste is shit, I’m sorry.

Tom, do you only drink beer or do you also have other favorite drinks?

Tom Angelripper: I drink milk. (everybody laughs) I don’t drink beer so much, you know. I also like whiskey with cola, Jagermeister, uzo. But we aren’t alcoholics, we don’t drink the whole day. 

Drinking is very important for musicians…

Tom Angelripper: No, not really.

But you know that many musicians drink a lot and some of them died…

Tom Angelripper: Like Witchhunter (the band’s ex-drummer Chris Witchhunter, who died a few years ago – ed.), for example.

What can you advise - how to drink and not to die?

Tom Angelripper: I don’t drink so much as Witchhunter. He drank every day, you know. He drank two bottles of booze – whatever he could get - and it’s too much for the liver. I don’t drink beer at home, I don’t drink during the week, I don’t drink in the rehearsal room. I just drink beer on weekends when I go out with my friends.

Bernemann: We wouldn’t be able to go on tour and work professionally if we drank too much – we just wouldn’t be able play a show. Maybe we could play one show and then party, but the next day is hangover. So you have to take care. Drinking beer is part of the party, part of the show, but you have to take care of your health.

Tom Angelripper: Twenty years ago I was drunk all the time, I was even drunk onstage.

But what made you change?

Tom Angelripper: I keep getting older, you know. I remember one Onkel Tom show in Germany, when I fell from the stage. From then on I don’t drink before the show. We can drink one or two beers though, that’s not a problem.

What influenced you to release the book “Buer In Westfalen”? What you can say about responses to this book?*

Tom Angelripper: It’s my home town! I’m very interested in the history of my home town. I collect postcards. I remember there was a collectors’ convention in Dortmund and I got one or two cards from very old times. I was like, “It looks great! A hundred years before!” And then I started collecting all postcards I could get - from eBay, markets and so on. It’s my third book about this, you know. I wanna show the people what I collect. It’s just a hobby, though older people like it. And the responses are very good. At Christmas time people are gonna buy it for their fathers and grandfathers, so that they could go, “Oh, it looks great! It was my time, when I grew up!”

There are some rumors about an article in one paper from Gelsenkirchen. It reads that you saved the life of a child who was drowning in a river. Is it true?*

Tom Angelripper: I saved a child? No!

Bernemann: He pushed him. (everybody laughs)

Bernemann, I have a question for you. When Tom worked together with Witchhunter and Grave Violator (Sodom’s first guitarist) on “The Final Sign Of Evil”, didn’t you feel any kind of jealousy about it?*

Bernemann: No, I didn’t feel jealousy and the same with Bobby (current drummer), because we knew why Tom works with Chris and Peppi (aka Grave Violator). It was an idea of the record company to do this. Bobby and me knew that it’s nearly impossible to work with Chris. I heard so many stories about Chris from Tom and from Peppi. Everybody knew that Peppi and Chris would make just one CD and that’s it. For me it was very important that at the same time we were still working as Sodom, so I always had the felling the we continue with the current line-up, that we keep on writing new songs, keep touring, we have plans for the future. For a moment I was thinking about this, “Hey! If they sell a lot of records, what will happen?”But after a couple of days I met Chris, and I understood that it’s impossible.
What you can say about the creative process in the band? Who brings ideas for the songs?

Tom Angelripper: We still do it in the rehearsal room, like in the 1980s. We start jamming and most of the time it starts with a guitar riff.

So it’s not your idea, right?

Tom Angelripper: The guitar riff is his idea. (points at Bernemann) And then we put everything together and I write lyrics after we have finished the song.

Bernemann: I would never say, “This song is my idea”. I have ideas for guitar riffs, but I don’t tell Tom what to do, it is his decision how he sees his part. It’s the same with Bobby – he decides what he’s playing on the drums. So we talk about everything together, and this is OUR song that we create.

Thrash metal is very popular right now. What do you feel when you see a bunch of bands who play like the 80s and copy old bands?

Tom Angelripper: You cannot copy the bands from the 80s. What is positive is that there is a new generation of metal fans growing up. At the last shows we did there were very young people – 14-15 years old – and they like old metal, 80s metal – Venom or Sodom. I asked them, “Why do you listen to this kind of music?” And they said, “This is real heavy metal” They hate metalcore bands or other bands growing up nowadays. I know that Sodom is the inspiration for other bands, like black metal bands. But you cannot copy a band like Sodom. There is the band called Ketzer and they try to do the same as Kreator and Sodom did in the beginning, but it’s not the same. That was the right music for that time.

Do you have in Germany any bands like Bonded By Blood and Gama Bomb which are considered thrash metal revival?

Tom Angelripper: What does it mean – thrash revival? I remember in 2000 they were saying that thrash metal is coming back and getting more popular. We never mind, we’ve always been here, we’ve never stopped playing. In the 1990s a lot of bands changed their style or split up. We never mind what other band do, there is no dictation from a scene or record companies what to do – we do what we want. Thrash means “do what you want, you’re free”. As for new bands I don’t think they can keep the spirit of the 1980s, even we can’t keep the spirit of that, but we try. On the new album we try to keep the spirit of the 1980s because we really never changed. If you’re gonna buy a Sodom album you will never be disappointed. But I don’t see any thrash revival nowadays.

What you can say for the Russian fans?*

Tom Angelripper: We always have a great time here. For me it’s forth of fifth time here – I’ve been here with Onkel Tom, and with Sodom we played here for the first time in 2001. It’s crazy – crazy people all the time!

Bernemann: Thanks for supporting us. We’re always happy to come, we’re waiting for the show.

Tom Angelripper: It’s not like in Germany. There you can see every band any week in any place. All bands are touring around Germany and we have also a lot of big festivals. And when we’re playing in Russia and South America, people are still hungry to see thrash metal bands. It’s always something special.

Sodom on the Internet: http://www.sodomized.info/

Special thanks to Delta Mekong Concerts for accreditation to the press conference

Questions marked as (*) were asked by HeadBanger.ru staff
Typing and editing by Konstantin “Hirax” Chilikin
Photos by Dmitry “Ward” Kulikov
November 5, 2010
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