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As the opening seconds of In Retribution announce the arrival of Germany’s most relentless thrash crusaders, it’s hard not to wish that James Hetfield would switch to whatever Tom Angelripper has been having for breakfast for all these years.
Three and a half decades after forming in the small city of Gelsenkirchen, Sodom still show no signs of slowing down, easing up or doing anything other than pounding everyone and everything into the dust for all eternity.
Decision Day offers no great surprises or departures, but the best thrash metal doesn’t need such distractions anyway; this rips, at full pelt and with no safety net, from rampant start to bloody finish, and experience ensures that every song grabs the attention like a slap to the forehead. As with their Teutonic brethren in Destruction and Kreator, Sodom have neither bowed to current sonic trends nor succumbed to the law of diminishing artistic returns. Songs like Rolling Thunder and the curiously titled Vaginal Born Evil may never overshadow the classics, but German thrash is very much alive and still flying the flag for heavy fucking metal like nothing else on Earth.
