Sodom

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Sodom was formed by Thomas Such (v/b) and Frank Testegen (g) in 1982 in the Western German industrial town of Gelsenkirchen. Those guys, better known under their pseudonyms Angelripper and Aggressor, were mostly influenced by bands like Motörhead, Tank, Raven, and of course Venom.
They soon found a drummer called Bloody Monster who was, however, quickly replaced by Christian Dudeck (a.k.a. Witchhunter), with whom they released two demos, "Witching Metal" and "Victims of Death" in 1982 and 1984, before signing a deal with SPV. After a gig in Frankfurt in 1984 (with Destruction and Tankard) Manfred Schütz of SPV/Steamhammer came to the band and spoke the legendary sentence "You guys are so bad, you will sell a lot of records!". This led to the recording of their debut EP "In the Sign of Evil". Missing was Agressor, who had meanwhile left the band. He was replaced by Peppi Dominic aka "Grave Violator" (recommended to the band by Kreator's Mille Petrozza), who also wouldn't stay very long. In his place, Michael "Destructor" Wulf joined, just to leave the band shortly after the recordings of their first full-length album "Obsessed by Cruelty" in 1986 to join Kreator (where he would last only one show). Wulf died in a motorcycle accident in 1993.
After "Obsessed by Cruelty" was released, the band abolished their satanic image and replaced it with the (pacifistic motivated) war theme that can be found on most of Sodom's records. With their new guitarist Frank "Blackfire" Gosdzik, the most legendary Sodom line-up recorded two albums (plus a live album, "Mortal Way of Live", the first of various Sodom releases which had a censored cover in Germany): "Persecution Mania" (wich was the first Sodom album produced by the band's long-time producer Harris Johns, and also had the first cover that featured the band's mascot "Knarrenheinz") and "Agent Orange" (including the single "Ausgebombt"). This album made Sodom the first German Thrash band to ever enter the charts (it reached number 36 on the German Media Control charts).
Blackfire left in 1989 (like Destructor before he joined Kreator) and was replaced by ex-Assassin (Ger) guitarist Michael Hoffman.
In 1992 Tom fired Chris Witchhunter, who had alcohol problems. Atomic Steif (ex-everything), who would stay in the band until 1996 (and is, like many former Sodom members, still embittered that Tom fired him) became the new drummer.
Since 1997 the Sodom line-up consists of Tom Angelripper, Bobby Schottkowski (ex-Crows) and Bernemann. In 2001 Tom, who meanwhile also released various solo albums as Onkel Tom, has been awarded double platinum for more than 1.000.000 sold Sodom albums.
Thrash Metal is alive! (Interview)
Interview with Tom
Outbreak Of Evil (Live in Braunschweich, 1988)
Blasphemer (Live in Braunschweich, 1988)
Ausgebombt
The Kids Wanna Rock (Live)
Silence Is Consent
Agent Orange (Live 1994)
Die Stumme Ursel
Fuck The Police
Napalm In The Morning (unofficial fan video!)
Among The Weirdcong (Live in Bangkok)
Remember The Fallen (Live WFF 2003)
Ace Of Spades (Live in Sofia 2004)
Wanted Dead (Live 2006)