1982

FOR FANS OF: KREATOR, DESTRUCTION, TANKARD, EXODUS, OVERKILL, VENOM, SLAYER, POSSESSEDFlashback 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. "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," remembers Sodom boss Tom Angelripper, looking back at his adolescence. "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 immortalised on vinyl for the first time.