Tom Angelripper has been plugging away for over fifteen years with his main act Sodom, never venturing too far from a heavy speed-thrash proto-death metal approach. Considering his vocals sound like he gargles sharp glass, it's amazing this guy hasn't lost his voice or suffered from any loss in power in all these years. Anyhoo, his solo stuff isn't too remarkably different from Sodom, except that most of these songs sound like German drinking songs done in Sodom style. Throw in gang vocals reminscient of a really tough bar all singing together at once for a chorus and Tom's spitting gutteral lead as well as some exceptionally heavy music, and you have a pretty fun record overall. The one drawback is that the songs, all seventeen of them, tend to run together after awhile. It took me several attempts to get completely through the CD in one sitting and that was the day I was driving an 1100 mile roundtrip...so I had plenty of time on my hands to sit through a record. In small doses, this is a lot of fun. In large doses...well, you know how they recommend against overindulgence in life. Lyrically, I can only assume these are massively decadent lyrics about self-destructive habits, but what do I know? For Sodom fans, the Angelripper solo records are totally worth getting. This isn't like Quorthon of Bathory releasing strange grunge rock songs. Rather, this is dirty, heavy and full speed ahead fist pumping anthems.

Review by John Chedsey

Review date: 08/1999

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