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I still remember the reviews in the Dutch magazine 'Aardschok' in the mid eighties of a new Sodom album. One started with the quote, 'So dom heb ik het nog nooit gehoord', which means 'I never heard something as stupid as this'. In my opinion they were a bit too negative, but especially due to the bad production and so so musicianship they wrote that.

A lot has changed and Sodom still exists. The music of Sodom with captain Tom Angelripper has developed throughout the years and they have turned into skilled musicians also. This new album 'Epitome of Torture' is in my opinion their best so far.... It has the aggression a Sodom album needs, but is full of nice melodic guitar soli too. The thrash sounds more American than German, but the singing accent of Tom betrays they are German.

Real fast thrash grenades like "My Final Bullet", "Stigmatized" (with excellent growling) and "Shoot Today - Kill Tomorrow" are varied with mid-tempo groovier songs like "Cannibal" and heavy, packed full of melody, stuff. After the good album 'In War and Pieces' Sodom has succeeded in releasing another first class album and show that even after 30 years they still, together with Destruction, Kreator and Tankard form the German thrash elite..

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