German thrash metal pioneers SODOM will release a new EP, “1982”, on November 10 via SPV/Steamhammer.

Flashback to spring 1982, Essen, Stauderstraße in the Altenessen district, a small musty rehearsal room in an industrial wasteland area. Three long-haired hopefuls have tuned their instruments and are hard at work, recording their first demo tape at top volume. The track they’re cutting is called “Witching Metal” and turns into bludgeoning thrash metal of the purest variety.

SODOM frontman Thomas “Angelripper” Such said: “Basically, we chose the wrong key, but we then weren’t about musical correctness, we were all about attitude. We were against the establishment, were in trouble with our teachers and training supervisors because, in their opinion, we wore the wrong clothes and listened to the wrong kind of music. At vocational college, I was the only one into metal. All the others listened to New Wave or Neue Deutsche Welle.”

That’s 41 years ago, but the influence of that formative era still affects the present, which is why Tom and SODOM wrote the track “1982”, recalling the band’s first steps both musically and lyrically. Now, “1982”, as well as re-recordings of their early songs “Witching Metal”, “Victims Of The Death”, “Let’s Fight In The Darkness Of Hell” and “Equinox” have been immortalized on vinyl and some on CD for the first time. And as any self-respecting, dynamic band would, they’ve also scheduled a tour in the spirit of that early SODOM phase in 2023 and 2024.

Track listing:
01. 1982 (Remix)
02. Witching Metal
03. Victims Of Death
04. Let’s Fight In The Darkness Of Hell
05. Equinox

Last fall, Angelripper confirmed to Agoraphobic News that SODOM had commenced work on the follow-up to 2020’s “Genesis XIX” LP. He said: “We are still working on new material for a new album. I can tell you this will be the heaviest SODOM album ever.

“I don’t know when it’s gonna be released — next year or 2024 — because I wanna work on it without any pressure,” he continued. “It’s very important. When the songs are finished, everything is fixed, we can talk to a record company to get an option to release. That’s also the business.

“But, yes, we are always active,” Tom added. “During the corona times, we had more time for writing songs and recording an album. That was the only positive in these times. But ‘Genesis XIX’ was a wonderful album ’cause we spent more time recording it.”

SODOM‘s 40th-anniversary album, “40 Years At War – The Greatest Hell Of Sodom”, arrived in October 2022 through Steamhammer/SPV. The LP included one song from each of the previous studio albums receiving a re-recorded treatment from SODOM‘s current lineup. The CD and vinyl double LP with their martial cover artwork penned by Eliran Kantor (KREATOR, TESTAMENT, GWAR, among others) contain 17 tracks, all newly recorded by Such, Frank Blackfire (guitar),Yorck Segatz (guitar) and Toni Merkel (drums).

“Genesis XIX” came out in November 2020 via Entertainment One (eOne) in North America and Steamhammer/SPV in Europe. The disc was recorded by Siggi Bemm and mastered by Patrick W. Engel and comes shrouded in the cover art of Joe Petagno of MOTÖRHEAD fame.

Angelripper previously described “Genesis XIX” as “one of the toughest and most diverse studio recordings that SODOM have ever released.”