Sodom - In the Sign of Evil (1984)

During the nearly thirty years that its been since Thrash metal was established as a metal sub-genre it hasn't exactly evolved much, though its interesting going back to the initial early years of the genre and seeing the small developments it made. If you go back to '83 and listen to the debuts from Slayer and Metallica you're ears bare witness to high octane aggressive music that has tons of energy and an underlining sort of party-ish atmosphere to it, but within a single year of these early examples of thrash the genre would began to twist and turn in a most violent and dark way.

Sometime in 1981 three maniacs from Gelsenkirchen, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany who choose to perform under the names of Angel Ripper, Grave Violator and Witchhunter and to collectively be known as Sodom released, 'In the Sign of Evil' in early May of 1984 to an unknowing thrash metal scene worldwide.

After a short intro, 'Outbreak of Evil' slowly builds up and rips out of your speakers in an absolutely violent, demonic, hasty and raw way unheard of at the time. Angel Ripper growls and rasps out words of blasphemy an evil while Grave Violators heavy guitar and Witchhunter's sloppy pummeling drum work levels you. Its an all out battle from the first song to the last as characteristics of Venom, Motorhead, Slayer and perhaps some punk all come together as one devilish assault of the senses. 'Sepulchral Voice' and 'Blasphemer' are just pulverizing fast evil tunes completely unheard of at the time, while 'Witching Metal' is slightly less intense and shows more obvious Venom traits, but is nonetheless enjoyable in my own opinion. The final song on the EP, 'Burst Command Til War' brings back the more primal wild side once again with an absolutely crazy echoing hellhole of insane voices during the chorus.

Since this was Sodom's first official release after their two demos its obvious that the band was just trying to blast the listener away, but at the same time they took thrash to new territories and also set black metal music in motion too. Of course, Sodom would get a hell of lot more technical and more straight forward thrashy by the the time they released, 'Persecution Mania' in '87 and their masterpiece, 'Agent Orange' in '89. Nevertheless, you know me, and I love all extreme pioneering metal no matter what sub-genre it belongs to and I can say without hesitation that both, 'In the Sign of Evil' and the bands '86 debut, 'Obsessed by Cruelty' fucking rule!