Sodom
Everything On This Album is Handmade

20.06.2025

Wars start, wars end, and wars start anew, but German thrashers Sodom, who have dedicated a major share of their lyrics to war, seem to be around perpetually. Fresh from celebrating their 40th (just think about that!) anniversary with an album of re-recordings from all across their vast catalogue, the four-piece led by singer/bassist Tom Angelripper are here again with a brand-new full length, aptly titled “The Arsonist”. Sodom, as well as Onkel Tom’s other projects, appear to be seriously overlooked in our interview section, and it was clear from the very beginning that we would not be able to ask the man everything we wanted to know. So we decided to focus on the new album, which deserves to be discussed anyway, but as Tom is a very eloquent speaker, and he addressed a lot of other topics even without being asked. The most dramatic news he gave us is that Sodom will take a break pretty much right after “The Arsonist” hits the shelves. Read on to know the reasons and to find out more about what Tom has been up to lately…

Tom, we did our first interview back in 2003 for the live album, “One Night In Bangkok”. Back then, Thailand was a very exotic place for metal, but it looked very promising as far as fans and gigs were concerned. But you have only returned there a couple of times, and it was more than 15 years ago as well. How do you look back on that live album and are you aware of what’s going on in Thailand in terms of metal music at the moment?

You probably know that we were supposed to record the live album in Vietnam. We travelled to Vietnam to check out the metal scene and try to find the venue in Ho Chi Minh City, or Saigon. That was my plan – to record album in a rock pub called “Apocalypse Now!”. And then we got some problems with local politics, because they were like, “There’s a Western band coming from Germany, this band is pro-American, they have a song called ‘Marines’…” We had a lot of trouble there, we couldn’t record, we couldn’t even make a show there. But we got in contact with the metal scene, and the metal scene was living in the underground back then. It was forbidden for men to wear long hair and metal patches, people didn’t wanna see that in the streets. And then we decided to record in Bangkok, because Thailand has a metal scene, Thailand is an open country for everyone, and there was no problem with recording and making shows over there. We played in “The Rock Pub”, and then we played in “Hollywood”, that’s a bigger place, that was very easy. When I want to record a live album, I don’t want to record at Wacken or any other German festival, I am always looking for some really special exotic places to record something. But that was a lot of fun to do. I am not going to Thailand all the time; when we have a job there, when we get a show there, we go. I’m not going there as a tourist, it’s not my thing, but there’s a big metal scene.

Can you name a few other Sodom gigs that you would also regard as milestones in the history of the band? What makes a gig truly outstanding for you personally?

Oh, we’ve had so many gigs… I think the most impressive show was when we played in Sofia, Bulgaria, in 1991. We were the first metal band to play behind the Iron Curtain, that was really something special. If you are the first band who put their foot in that country, that is something special. In 1990, there was another first - we were the first German thrash metal band that played in Mexico. These are the gigs I will always remember. If you have had hundreds or even thousands of shows in your career, you forget a lot of them, but these two gigs – in Mexico and Bulgaria – were really impressive, it was a big experience. Moreover, we played in Tasmania… Do you know where it is? (laughs)

Yes, we do, that’s in Australia.

We were the first metal band ever that played there (in June 2007 – ed.). When we played in Australia, the promoter said, “We can do a show in Tasmania, they have a big bar where bands play” – a bar with people drinking, it was real fun to do, and we were the first metal band there. These are moments I will never forget.

Now let’s discuss your upcoming album “The Arsonist”. First of all, how does the band work on a Sodom album? Do you collectively decide – it’s time to do an album, so let’s start writing write music and lyrics? Or do you come up with some ideas here and there, then put them together and say – yes, now we have an album ready?

Yeah, this one, I gotta hold in it my hand! (Shows “The Arsonist” CD in front of the camera– ed.) It’s one of the first copies that I’ve got for me and the band. It’s always a result of great work, years of working, so when you hold it in your hand, that’s always a special day for me. Now to answer your question –we have no special time period for writing songs. When we did the previous album, “Genesis XIX” (2020), we had the corona pandemic, so there was a lot of time for writing songs and putting everything together, because we didn’t have any live shows. We are always writing songs. The guitarists come up with some guitar riffs, and on the new album, our drummer (Toni Merkel – ed.), he’s a good guitarist as well, and he wrote five songs for it, which is great. We come up with ideas, but we put everything together in our rehearsal room, because we have to arrange the songs. If you have one or two good guitar riffs, it’s not a song. I’m the singer in the band, I have to put my lyrics on it, and we put everything together during rehearsing sessions. We also have to wait for the record company to offer us an option so we can plan a new Sodom album. I remember in the 80s we recorded an album every year, but now time is flying so fast, and the music scene has changed so much; if we get an option, we start recording songs.

Can you say a few words about the recording process? As far as we understand, you did it pretty different this time – for instance, you used analogue tape to record the drums…

Exactly! That was something really special. The last time we recorded on tape was at the end of the 90s. I think in ‘95 or ‘96 a lot of studios changed from analogue to digital recording. A friend of Toni is running a studio near my hometown, we visited him, I went to the studio and saw a tape machine and a big analogue mixing desk. I asked him if he was still recording bands with the tape machine. He said, “Yes! If you wanna try, we can do a preproduction recording and record the drums on tape”. I don’t know exactly why, but if you’re recording on a tape, it sounds better, especially if you want to get a bigger drum sound. I asked Toni - because when you’re recording drums, and if you have an issue or make a mistake at the end of a song, you have to restart from the beginning, unlike the digital recording, which is easier and more payable. But Toni did one or two takes - and the song was done, that was great! The thing is that I want to have a drum sound like in the 80s, a wide open production with the big drums in the middle, guitars left and right. If you listen to bands from the 80s, you’ll know what I mean about the drum sound. Nowadays a lot of bands have the same drum sound because they use the same software, the same plugins, snare samples, whatever, or triggers on bass drums. I don’t want it, I just want to have microphones recording the drums as they are, the most organic and authentic drum sound. But the problem is that in the end a lot of people listen to metal music on their smartphones, so we have to compress the whole file to get the guitars through. If you listen to something on a smartphone, just hold a smartphone before your face, you wouldn’t hear the guitars, because they are left and right. That’s a shame, we have to compress the whole file to make it listenable on smartphones, Spotify, mp3 and all the stuff. But it was a great experience, you know. And the drum sound is the pure drum sound as it is in the rehearsal room or at a live show, without any samples, that is very important to me. I know it’s expensive working in a studio with a tape machine, but I wanna spend the money on it.

Why did you decide to call the album “The Arsonist”? Who or what does it refer to?

Who is it? I don’t know. Some people ask me, “Is it President Trump? Is it President Putin?” It’s not some special person. It’s somebody who wants to set the world on fire. But if you look at the cover you will see a very peaceful situation: a soldier on his knee, a dead person in front of him, they are very close to having a peaceful world. And Knarrenheinz, our mascot, is coming down from the sky, and he destroyed everything. I think this cover reflects the situation we’re having in the world now. But I don’t want to talk about politics, you will never find any political opinion in my lyrics. The message of “The Arsonist” is very simple: stop it! We wanna live in a peaceful world. And I wanna come back to Russia again one day when it’s possible. We used to play in Russia every year, and we always had a great time. We also played in Ukraine, which I have to mention. I’m a musician, I wanna live in a free world, I wanna play wherever I want it. That’s my dream. But on this album I don’t wanna tell people who’s the good guy, who’s the bad guy, no way! I don’t want to talk about big politics. There are some lyrics on the album which are dealing with a soldier who is fighting on the frontline, in the trenches, who is scared to die. That’s the thing. There are lots of politicians who are gonna send people to war and never fight in any war themselves. That’s stupid. I’m a musician, and what I want is I wanna play everywhere in the world.

We cannot agree with you more on this!

I hope they will find a diplomatic way to get out of this, that is my dream. I know that every day thousands of soldiers are gonna die on both sides. It’s a very difficult, a very strange situation. For me as a musician, as a free man, that’s a shame. 

How did you like working with Zbigniew Beliak on the cover artwork for the first time? Why did you choose Zbigniew?

I met this guy three years ago, when we played in Norway or in Sweden, I can’t remember. He’s a big Sodom fan, he came backstage, and we talked a little bit. I know that he did the covers for the latest Ghost albums, which is completely different from what I want for a Sodom cover. He also worked for Mayhem and other metal bands. I told him that I want to have a cover in the style of Andreas Marschall, who did covers for us in the 80s, or Joe Petagno, who did the last two covers for us, which were great. He told me, “I will work with airbrush and do everything that you want”. Then I started sending him some songs that we had already recorded in a rehearsal room or at pre-production, and I sent him some of my lyrics because he needed inspiration. The cover was growing up a little bit every year, and after three years it was finished. I got a PDF file with the finished product and said, “This cover is awesome!” This is one of the best covers we’ve had in years, in decades maybe. This guy is a big Sodom fan, he told me, “I’m a big fan of ‘Obsessed By Cruelty’”, which is our first album from 1986. He said, “This album is a Holy Grail, I would be glad to work for Sodom and do an oldschool cover with the typical Sodom trademarks - Knarrenheinz, guns, weapons and all the stuff”. I like this cover very much, and I have to tell you - it’s hand-painted. People are gonna wonder, “Is this AI?” No, it’s hand-painted. I know that if you use artificial intelligence, you can make a cover like this without using any tools. It’s a shame - it takes an artist years to work on a cover, and some people say, “It’s digital”. Everything on this album is hand-made, I don’t want to know anything about AI, I hate it. I know that a lot of bands are gonna use it for writing songs as well, it’s not a problem, there’s a software to which you can say, “I wanna have a heavy metal song, it should sound like Venom with Lemmy singing”, and you just need one click to get a song, completely arranged, with lyrics. That’s stupid, in my opinion. 

What’s the point in listening to this? When there are so many great bands and great musicians around, why should anyone listen to music generated by AI?

Because they don’t tell you. They’re gonna say, “We have a new album” or “We have a new song”. How do you know if a musician composed it for themselves, or used any software for it? That’s something I hate, I cannot live with it. I wanna make my own music, I don’t need this. It’s the same as when we’re gonna write Sodom songs, we never want to get inspired by other bands. We just wanna do a Sodom song and keep the Sodom trademarks. I never mind what others say, I know what Sodom fans want to listen to, and I don’t wanna leave any fans disappointed when they’re gonna buy an album. And everything is handmade, that is very important to say. 

Apparently everybody is asking you about the song “Witchhunter”, and we also have a question about it. Why did you decide to write a song about Chris Witchhunter (the original Sodom drummer - ed.) for this particular album, 17 years after his death? Was there any particular event or something special that inspired this track?

No, not really. This guy is present all the time - when we rehearse, when we play shows, when we work in the studio. I think the idea came when we re-recorded older songs for the 40-year anniversary sampler, “40 Years At War” (2022). We got deeper into the older material like “Obsessed By Cruelty”, “Persecution Mania” (1987), “In The Sign Of Evil” (1985) or whatever, and Toni, or drummer said, “Chris is a really good drummer, because he created his own style”. He created the typical Sodom drum sound and style, and Toni tried to combine the chaotic Witchhunter drumming with the more accurate drumming that is usual nowadays. He was always present, and then we came up with the idea, “Why don’t we write a song about Witchhunter?” He was my best friend in the beginning, he was a founding member of Sodom, he was there from the beginning. But I didn’t wanna present him as a hero, because his life went so tragic in the end. He had a big influence on the metal scene, on the drummers in the 80s, but he died too early because of alcohol abuse and all the stuff. Another song on this album is called “A.W.T.F.”, and this song is about Algy Ward, my favorite bass player and singer from the 80s (founder and frontman of British band Tank - ed.). He died two years ago because of alcohol and everything. He was also a good friend of mine, and when you get a message that this person has died, it’s really hard to realize. So I have two dedications on this album - to Witchhunter and Algy Ward, and it’s a good thing to do. 

You mentioned that you and Witchhunter used to drink together in the 80s. And in the 90s you had Dirk Strahlmeyer (guitar) in the band, who went to prison for possession of drugs. How did you personally manage to avoid addictions being in such company? Why were you able to stop and Chris or Dirk did not?

I tried to make them stop, too, especially when we were recording an album or rehearsing. I remember when we did “The Final Sign Of Evil” (2007) with Chris, he was drunk all the time. I picked him up at home to bring him to the rehearsal room and to the studio, and he would already start drinking. He couldn’t play the drums anymore. I said, “Chis, you’re an alcoholic, I know, but when you have a job, when you’re recording something, you have to get sober, you have to get clean, because you have to realize what you’re gonna do on the drums”. And he said, “I never mind, I drink all the time”. He didn’t want to stop. And the same was with Strahli. Strahli was not only an alcoholic, he was also into cocaine and all that stuff, he couldn’t stop. That was really a shame. After Strahli recorded guitars for “Masquerade In Blood” (1995), he got jailed directly. They wanted to jail him before we started recording, but we got in contact with the police and some politicians to let him out for a couple of weeks because we were going to record an album, and recording an album is good for the future, when he would get out of jail. After we recorded everything, he got jailed. He was a complete junkie. I hate this in artists - I drink a lot sometimes, but I always know when to stop. When we have a job, when we go to a concert, when we travel, when we go to the studio… or when I was working in a coal mine, I couldn’t drink. But some people never find an end, and that’s a shame. Never take drugs! You can drink your beer, and I’m gonna drink my beer after a show - when I get a job done, I drink one or two beers, and it’s good. But I never start putting something in my nose or smoking shit or whatever. I don’t want that.

Speaking about musicians that fell victims of their addiction – in 2018 you appeared as a guest singer in the song “Zeutan” by the band Darkness. Why did you agree to participate? Did you know Zeutan (Oliver Fernickel, former Darkness singer - ed.) personally back in the day?

Yes, I knew him. We were together a lot in the 80s. Darkness as a band started, I think, in 1984, and we had the same rehearsal room, they rehearsed next to us in the same district. We were good friends all the time, and we are still good friends. You have to know that our guitarist from 1985, Ahathoor, Uwe Christoffers, came from Darkness, he was the founder of Darkness, and then he jumped to Sodom, because when we recorded “Obsessed By Cruelty”, guitarist Destructor left the band directly after the recording, so we got Uwe Christoffers on the guitar for live shows. He was a good friend, and he also died a few years ago. All the people are dead around me! (chuckles) Darkness are good friends of mine, and I’m gonna help them out whenever I can. 

You have so far published two videos in support of “The Arsonist”, but “Trigger Discipline” is a lyric video, and “Witchhunter” is made of early footage from the 90s. Do you have any plans to film a full-scale music video for this album, or do you find it not really necessary these days?

I don’t know why to release lyric videos, but that’s the way it is nowadays. Record companies wanna promote singles, and today we have the third clip out (“Taphephobia”). “Trigger Discipline” was a classic lyric video with all the digital stuff, and when we came up with the idea to do a video for “Witchhunter”, I told the record company, “I want to have something with real material”. I’m still in contact with Andy Brings (former guitarist - ed.), we re-released “Tapping The Vein” (1992) and we’re gonna do something with other stuff in the next few years. I asked him for material with Witchhunter, and he told me he had a lot of film, because he always had his camcorder and recorded everything. So Andy put this video for “Witchhunter” together - all live material, photos of Witchhunter, organic material, not digital stuff. That’s what I really like. But doing a full video - yes, we think about doing a videoclip for one song, but time is running. I didn’t have time for doing it, because we were touring all the time. Especially in the last year we were touring permanently and we couldn’t find the time for arranging something. But the lyric videos are out, it’s good for promoting the album. I’m not a fan - what is a lyric video? I’m an oldschool fan of oldschool stuff coming from the 80s, and this is a new medium of promotion. Nevertheless, for “Witchhunter” it was perfect, and Andy Brings did a great job on it. He’s working in the field of video editing, and software formatting. I’m always in contact with Andy, after rereleasing “Tapping The Vein” we talk about re-releasing “Get What You Deserve” (1994). That’s what I’m going to do next. The back catalogue went from SPV to BMG, and we’re gonna talk about re-releasing the complete back catalogue step by step.

That’s interesting. “Tapping The Vein” was a really massive re-release…

Yes, people were waiting for it. “Tapping The Vein” is an album that had never been re-released before. You could only get the first press, but you would have to pay a lot of money for it. I know a friend of mine, he bought the first press of “Tapping The Vein” for 600 euros. 

Oh, that’s an insane amount!..

If you’re gonna re-release something, it’s good for the scene, because on “Tapping The Vein” there was a lot of live material. But if you are a collector, you wanna have the original first press. That’s the thing that collectors are running behind, and some people are gonna pay the price. It’s amazing. But I think what we’re gonna do next is “Get What You Deserve”, Andy will start doing a remix of this album, and there’s gonna be a big surprise. 

Why don’t you have any German lyrics on “The Arsonist”?

If I don’t have a good idea for a German song, I don’t do it. You cannot sit down and start writing a German song, it’s impossible. You have to have a good idea for such a song, but in this case I didn’t have any. 

Speaking about German lyrics - your other project Onkel Tom has been inactive since 2019. Do you have any plans to do anything with it in the future?

No. I’m gonna tell you - my plan is to stop doing music for a while. I think you have heard the rumors - I wanna have a break from making music, touring and all the stuff. I have two upcoming shows - at Copenhell and Rock Herz festivals, it’s gonna be in the end of June and the beginning of July, and then for me it’s gone. I need to spend more time on other things. I need to spend more time with the family, with good old friends, in my hunting district, I have so many other things to do. I talked to my band last year about it, they know what I’m gonna do, and they told me, “Whatever you decide, we are loyal to you. It’s your band, it’s your job, it’s your decision”. I don’t have any plans for the future. I don’t think about doing this, or doing that, or making a comeback with Onkel Tom. I have no plans, because I don’t want to put myself under pressure by telling people that I’m gonna do this and this at that time. After we play a show at Rock Herz, it’s gone for me. But it’s not for the rest of my life, I’m still healthy, and I’m still creative. But now the time is right for doing other things, I hope you understand.

Yes-yes, definitely! But let us have one more question about Onkel Tom. We remember seeing you play at Wacken in 2004 at 10 o’clock in the morning with an orchestra of firefighters. How did this collaboration happen, and how did you like the show?

That was amazing! I think with Onkel Tom we played at Wacken nearly every year. In the beginning Onkel Tom was the headlining band and the last band of the festival. Sometimes our show times were two or three in the morning, we were the last band on the big stage, which was always fun. But then the promoter came up with the idea, “Why don’t you do something with the firefighters? You’re gonna do classic German schlager and traditional drinking songs, and the firefighters always have the same songs in the setlist, just with different instruments”. So he came up with the idea of making this show for 10 o’clock in the morning, when people are getting awake and start drinking, and we would already be onstage. (everybody laughs) We had one or two rehearsals with the orchestra, I was the singer, I had my band with guitars, and the other musicians were playing trumpets and all the stuff. That was really funny, and there are a lot of videos around. You know, I played at Wacken every year, and I tried to find something new. Us and the Wacken firefighters were like a big family. I think we had more than one gig, there was also another one on the main stage. Those were great times, it’s something I will never forget. 

We will never forget it either. Back in 2004, not many bands were coming to our country, so travelling to Wacken and seeing all these bands, and also seeing Onkel Tom at 10 o’clock in the morning with and orchestra was incredible!

I never thought about playing my metal music with an orchestra, like other bands do. And this was not a typical orchestra, they are dripping heaviness, and this was something really funny to do. Alex (Kraft), my guitarist, arranged the songs, and it was like, “OK, we’re gonna play this part, it’s in D, and the next one’s in E…” We put everything together with the drummer and the orchestra players, it was a lot of fun. It was a little bit chaotic, because I had never done it before, but they told me, “Tom, it’s OK! Just sing it. Sing your lyrics and get it to the fans”.

As long as you mentioned hunting, can you tell us something about it and maybe tell us in general a bit about what you are going to do when you get more free time from music?

I do a lot in my private time, but hunting is my biggest passion. I’ve been hunting since 1991, that’s when I got my old hunting district. That’s so exciting! I was interested in nature, in animals and in guns, and I put it together in hunting. I figured that if you get a hunting license, you can buy rifles, shotguns and stuff, and then I started hunting. In the last 20 years I’ve had my own district, and I am hunting for deer and boars, which is really funny -  you have to go in at night, because you never see boars in the daylight. They are really smart. (everybody laughs) That is my big hobby, my big interest. I have a couple of friends who are with me, and we go together. Shooting is just two percent of the whole activities around hunting. I really enjoy hunting and I wanna do it more. The thing with touring is that you’re onstage for one or two hours - it’s not a problem, you know, that is my life, but wasting time on airports, airplanes, shitty hotels… You have to remember that when you play one show in Mexico or in South America, and you’re travelling around for a week. That’s something you’ll have to think about when you get to my age. I wanna spend more time with other things outside music. I’ll still be busy for the next two or three years because we’re working on the back catalogue, which is really a lot of work to do, but I’m not touring anymore.

Sodom on the Internet: https://sodomized.info/ 

Special thanks to Maxim Bylkin (Soyuz Music) for arranging this interview

Interview by Roman Patrashov, Natalia “Snakeheart” Patrashova
Photos by Mumpi Kuestner (courtesy of Soyuz Music)
June 3, 2025
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