Tapping the Vein

This might very well be Sodom's best album! At the very least, Tapping The Vein is their most brutal. As in extreme metal brutal. I have no idea why the extreme metal community seemed to write Sodom off after Agent Orange, because this is everything a purist thrasher would want in a follow up to it (alas, this was not what came after AO).

Death metal might have been in full swing in 1992, but this album will go toe to toe with anything from that genre. Hell, it will hold its own against any thrash, black, death or anything else claiming to be "extreme" in 1992 (there's an exception to every rule, and the exception in this case is Demolition Hammer's Epidemic of Violence). This looks at Vulgar Display of Power and says "nothing personell kid, but get on my level!" It's almost as if Angelripper and Witchunter looked at Sweden and America and rather than cower, decided to throw down, and goddammit it fucking rips! Mind you there's no tremolo picking or blastbeats, but vocally, holy shit! This is the closest to guttural Angelripper has ever gotten. Absolutely nightmarish. Angelripper's vocals look at the past 30 years of so-called 'harsh vocals' and Mark Hamil Joker laughs in their face. Production wise, you want a guitar tone so extra thicc it's exactly what master of darkness Aku ordered? You want downtuned? You want violence? You want HEAVY? Tapping The Vein has all of each and a bag of crippler chips!

Highlights include the 9.2 richter scale title track, the opening three song sequence of Body Parts, Skinned Alive, One Step Over the Line (a fan favorite of those who know) and the slightly silly, yet punk as fuck Watchurm. What can I say? It's fun to shout PORNO SHIT BELIEBER!

It's fascinating how this band started as borderline first wave black metal, and yet here they are hopping on the death metal wave! I don't care what 00s core whatever was your gateway, if you don't know this record, you're a filthy casual.

Sodom's 1990 release titled Better off Dead was a significant step in the back for the German thrash legends Sodom. While Agent Orange marked the peak of the band in every way possible, Better Off Dead let off the gas pedal. Tom Angelripper attempted clean vocals, the music became more precision-oriented as opposed to the usual ballsiness and barbaric malice we are used to from this band. Thankfully, they made it up very quickly with their 1992 comeback, Tapping the Vein. Man, it's not only a comeback but one of the strongest records this band managed to put together. It is Sodom at their absolute most aggressive, most pissed off, most hateful during their entire career. Brace yourselves, my friends.

This album is one of the more experimental albums of Sodom, they experimented quite a bit from the beginning of the 90s until the turn of the millennium. This record is often categorized as death thrash, but it is just thrash metal. The overly deep tonal range of death metal and song structures, featuring slow-paced, tremolo-picked, deep riffs with hammering double-pedals that would be reminiscent of death metal are not present here. These songs, both in terms of instrumentals and lyrics are more about Sodom's unrelenting wrath and rage towards an array of different topics, in their usual, thrash-oriented way. This is presented with remarkably little regard to sophistication and technicality, to bring out the primal, unevolved beast in Sodom in its rawest, most devastating form.

The blistering starter, "Body Parts" gives you an idea of just what sort of album this is. No melodies or classy lead lines, nor pretty vocal lines over lighthearted chord progressions to be found here. It's pure, raw aggression at very high speeds. But don't think it's just speedcore with little thought behind it. The album is pretty balanced, as there is room for longer, more divided pieces such as "Deadline", which is a crushing, ripping lesson in violence with Chris Witchhunter relentlessly devouring those skins off his drumset. I doubt that riff that comes in at 2:22 would leave anyone's memory anytime soon, because as simple as it is, that's how memorable and catchy it is. The title song is probably the most story-oriented on the entire album, going through various paces from pedal to the metal to chugging along tempo, with an entire section dedicated to what sounds like breathing through a gas mask. Why they would put that in there is beyond me, but as weird as it sounds, it does not sound out of place at all with the sections before and after it.

What allows this record to shine is the production. They could have written all these songs the way they did if the instruments sounded sterile and dull. Thankfully, that's not the case, and Sodom knew what they were doing, especially on this album. The drums are loud and echoing, with a snare that's as sharp as a katana. The bass is probably the most audible out of any Sodom album ever, and it majorly contributes to the heaviness and depth of the mix. The guitar tone is easily as thick and greasy as it would be on albums of more extreme genres at this time. It is delightful that Sodom didn't care about clarity, precision, or any of that stuff as they did on the previous album. They just wanted it to be loud, deep, and crushing. It's certainly that.

I could go on for a couple of more paragraphs praising this record, but I believe you understand what it's like. While this record is not as outstanding as Spectrum of Death, Epidemic of Violence, and a couple of others in this exact subcategory of music, this album is well up there with the heaviest thrash records of all time. It is quite an experience to hear Sodom in this flavor, and I wish they kept pushing this direction for just at least another album or two, instead of idiocies like Get What You Deserve and Masquerade In Blood. To be fair, those two albums are the only two really weak albums in this legendary band's career, and if you ask me, that's NOTHING for how long this band's been around.

The kings of thrash metal Sodom have released tons of great albums, but this one is obviously their peak. There isn't anything wrong with this album in the slightest.

Any thrash fan or metal fan in general can listen to this album once and instantly like it. This is the purest and bestest thrash metal I have ever heard in my life, above any other band out there.

This album proves that Sodom means business when making their music, and that they don't hold back at all. Every song is just pure ultimate talent, every song is unique and amazing.

Even though Sodom is thrash, this album is more of a thrash/death kinda thing. It has the speed and sound of thrash, but the aggressiveness and power of death metal. This record here is the band's heaviest.

Specifically what I like the most about this album are the drums. Everything about them is very pleasing and great. The sound of the drums are tight and solid, which is important in thrash since lots of thrash has fast, constant beats. The playing ability of the drums are damn great as well, especially on the opener Body Parts. The song starts with a few hits and then an incredibly fast section of drummage that introduces the style of the album. Fast, furious, aggressive, and extreme!

The guitar fits well will the drums perfectly. The guitar has a very heavy sound which is literally perfect for thrash. The drums and guitar go 100% hand-in-hand here. Heavy guitar + heavy drums, with speed and consistency makes the ultimate heavy thrash metal album ever!

The band members also came up with some amazing riffs and bass lines too. For example, the track Bullet in the head has a punk rock-type riff, and the bass line is extremely punkish too, which is so amazing. You'd probably expect this album to be a little repetitive, but its not AT ALL. Every single track on here is great and fresh. Every song full of energy and pure WAR and RAGE!

And like always, Sodom is back at it again with the awesome lyrics about war! Lyrics that describe full-on blood, sweat, and tears through the long and tedious war. Songs here vary in lyrical content to talking about the war and which what happens in it, and POV experiences with the war and personal reflections of people who have fought in the war. Once again, every song describes something new from the other! This record has so much variety and excellency.

This was also Sodom's last album to feature their original drummer Chris Witchhunter. It sucks that he had to leave the band, but at least he left the band on a great album with such a great performance!

Pros: Literally everything. All instruments sound great.
Cons: nothing at all.

Persecution Mania and Agent Orange may be amazing, which they are, but this album is far more superior to me. Listen to this album if you haven't already, this is serious GOLD.

“Tapping the Vein” is what happens when you take the band's tranquilizers and rabies shots and replace them with a massive pallet of steroids and crack-cocaine. If there is anything that this album teaches us, it is that the crazier the riffs, the faster the tempos, the more unhinged the structures, and the heavier the drums, the better. The album still retains the band's signature compact, stocky thrash riffage of the previous few war-obsessed releases, though this time they benefit from newcomer Andy Bring's completely unrefined and utterly frenetic guitar stylings, Angelripper's deeper, sometimes death-metal inspired growl, a much heavier production, and an aura that is considerably darker than anything they have released, before or after. “Tapping the Vein” crosses a few steps over the line of unadulterated heaviness, even for a band that was already known for their primordial brutality to begin with, and it lays to waste any argument that Sodom never released anything worthwhile after “Agent Orange.”

Most of the album is a collection of foundationally-volatile Frankenstein monsters of jagged, disjointed and seemingly random musical-fragments pieced together with rabid tremolos in a very deranged and irrationally heavy manner, often played with many schizophrenic tempo and rhythm changes, and at a velocity that often seems to teeter on the brink of collapse. These elements are crystallized probably best in the eery, dazed atmosphere and jumbled riffage that is the public execution-themed track “The Crippler.” The precarious nature of this album can't help but bring to mind albums such as Demolition Hammer's “Epidemic of Violence” or Ripping Corpse's “Dreaming with the Dead,” though not much here is quite as intricate as those albums, except for the title track and “Hunting Season.” The album is often painted with death metal overtones and has an overall feeling of spastic chaos and disarray, but it is still very much rooted in thrash, as much of the music is fairly bound in the band's signature straightforwardness and blunt riff-onslaughts, set forth from their Venom and Motörhead worship days, complete with the nondescript mid-paced thrash break in almost every song, the occasional galloping riff, and the band's instances of foiling this bleak, oppressively dark nature by continuing their tradition of injecting in a few fun punk-influenced tracks, namely with “Bullet in the Head” and “Wachturm,” which are done in a similar vein as “Stalinorgel” or “Ausgebombt.”

The anger from the previous three albums comes from within our gas-masked soldier, frustrated and stricken by a senseless war, fighting for a better world. But on this, we hear the point in which he gave up on all of humanity and the world, and commenced his apocalyptic desecration. The band has been able to compress their thrash template here, increasing their musical economy by packing on more riffs in a shorter period of time, with more than half of the tracks clocking under four minutes, helping add to the fleeting experience. That, along with the most skillful, accurate, rapid-fire and double-bass drenched drumming display of Witchhunter's career. The intense album opener “Body Parts” gives the listener a taste of Bring's jarring and demented style of thrashing as well as Angelripper's excellent vocal style. After the piercing, unorthodox main riff, the song soon drops into a gravely vocal performance that is arguably far more terrifying and convincing than anything Tardy or Barnes have done, proving once again why Tom is one of my favorite metal vocalists. He injects his nasty, witch-like rasp into what many consider to be a “death growl,” and to me these vocals sometimes remind me of Immolation to a very slight degree, though this is only standard on “Body Parts,” “Skinned Alive,” “The Crippler,” and the title track, with everything else being a gruffer, more rapid and pissed off version of his more pragmatic approach heard on previous releases. Though not quite death metal vocals, they're often just as vile. The lyrics the band have penned for this album are noticeably gorier in some areas, namely with “Skinned Alive” and “The Crippler,” adding to the death metal ethos, and are less war-focused for the time being, found only on “Back to War” and “Hunting Season.” Much of the lyrics use the harrowing musical backdrop to lyrics to paint a picture of real-world issues – “Body Parts” deals with black market organ trafficking, “One Step Over the Line” is about the repercussions of prostitution, “Deadline” is about death-row and lethal injection, and the title track is about a fatally bad trip due to substance abuse.

Sodom are a band that more often than not rely on their instinctual knack for creating effective, messy and memorial brutality than the technical accomplishment heard within many thrash and death metal bands of the time. As such, Brings manages to make the unique bizarreness of his riffs work, in a way similar to the equally insane and thrashy (but tonally different) riff-enigma “Eternal Nightmare.” Often times the shape and phrasing of his riffs seem closer to something you would hear off “Darkness Descends” or “Pleasure to Kill” than “Agent Orange” or “Persecution Mania.” “Deadline” and “Back to War” tear the listener limb from fucking limb, being among the fastest, most direct and pulverizing brutes of the album, the former being one of my favorites, with its frantic, Dark Angel-esque power-drill riffs repeatedly worming their way through one side of your skull, out the other. The later injects you with a steady stream of machine-gun fire tremolos and double-bass madness, almost as if you were being lead-injected with that blood-powered machine gun by Knarrenheinz himself. “Skinned Alive” is pure batshit insanity and is one of the most manic songs Sodom has ever done, tangling in an array of crazed tremolos with a weightier, oscillating main riff that will send any carbon-based life-form within a ten-mile radius into an immediate convulsion. “Hunting Seasons” and the title track are easily my favorite tracks along with “Deadline” and “Back to War,” these two being the more ambitious, blinding and riff-dense tracks, featuring dramatic, protracted intro-sections that soon sputter out into Demolition Hammer-styled turbulent riff-fits with brief verses that lead way to very memorial chorus sections, all of which is made even better with that gloriously grimy production and bass tone that brings back the distorted nature heard on “Persecution Mania.”

“One Step Over the Line” and “Reincarnation” engulf the listener with misty fog of pitch-black atmosphere, minimalist arrangements, and a slower, crushing pace that contrasts the blaze that is the rest of the album. The better of these two I feel is “Reincarnation,” which continues the experimental nature and subject matter of questioning the afterlife heard on “Resurrection,” of the previous album, although “Reincarnation” is much darker, heavier, and forbidding. One of the first things I noticed about this album, and one of my favorite aspects of the production is how massive and heavy these drums are. There is a spacious, reverberant thud to the percussion, especially with the toms (listen to the openings of “Skinned Alive” and “Deadline”), and it sounds almost like they were recorded in a big, empty steel container of sorts. Again, this warrants the comparison to the likes of Vinny Daze and Gene Hoglan. These drums, along with the thick metallic haze of the guitar tone, the strangling blur of the hyper-relentless riffs and tremolos, Angelripper's omnipresent vocals, and the meaty bassiness to everything gives the feeling of the listener being sucked through an endless void in a way none of their other albums could, production-wise.

In the late 80's and early 90's, along with albums such as “Epidemic of Violence,” “Slaughter in the Vatican,” “A Shedding of Skin,” “Spectrum of Death,” and “Leave Scars,” etc., “Tapping the Vein” showed the world that thrash was not ready to go quietly in the ways of grunge and groove, and they have done so by containing some of the most insane, total mind-fuck riff monstrosities this side of death metal. Like many others, I consider this one of my favorite Sodom releases, though it is best to see this merely as a different chapter in Sodom's legacy, as everything they have released offers something a little different despite containing the distinctive Sodom-RNA at their core. This album will prove influential for the band's later releases, with the filthy vileness painting their next three hardcore influenced albums, as well as the death-thrash elements being speckled throughout those as well as “Code Red” and “M-16.”

Sodom's discography is full of ups and downs, but one thing is certain: the band, in particular Tom Angelripper, never lacked of integrity. By contrast, Mille Petrozza is just a soulless profiteer (with a compositional talent, no doubt about it). He plays the self-reflective guy in interviews, but Kreator lyrics and videos often put the focus on cheap effects. Just take a look at the repulsive "Gods of Violence" video on YouTube, the newest visual shit of Mille's circus. Anyway, Angelripper's honesty and uprightness are the main pillars of his art and therefore I accept his relatively wide creative leeway in any respect. Nevertheless, I am glad about the fact that "Tapping the Vein" shows a very generic side of Sodom and this was no matter of course after the relatively lame "Better Off Dead". One must ignore the bad artwork and the first two songs that remain faceless (surprising idea to put the downer at the beginning of the album) in order to get brilliant stuff of the band. As the album develops, only "Deadline" fails to impress in view of its comparatively vapid riffing. In contrast, the further eight songs take the listener by the hand and bring him to a nice place in the universe of pretty violent, sometimes punk-inspired thrash metal.

Indeed, there are a couple of insidious, rapid, straight bullets that illustrate the closeness between punk and Sodom's approach. "Back to War" gives me the impulse to march immediately to the next registration office for volunteers, "Bullet in the Head" adds a catchy touch and Witchhunter's drum intro works as an identifying feature. "Hunting Season", don't be fooled by its rather ordinary beginning, is cut from the same cloth, but the closer expands the offering of "Tapping the Vein" significantly. The sinister, epic, partially keyboard-based "Reincarnation" fulfils its mission excellently while taking the audience to the border between this world and beyond. This majestic, anti-religious colossus is not a typical Sodom composition, but it marks a worthy conclusion of the album, which can not be blamed for half-heartedness or listlessness. The band has penned enough good material for a solid longplayer. No doubt, "Tapping the Vein" does not lack substance.

The further tracks commute between the stylistic specifications of the songs that I have mentioned in the second paragraph. "One Step Over the Line" impresses due to its bulldozing guitar work and the sustainable chorus, "Wachturm" contributes a funny component (if one likes pretty anti-social, more or less insulting humour), the title track puts the focus on heavyweight riffs and dark vibrations. The stoic bass, the devastating double bass drum and the imperious guitar create an ominous mid-paced intro. A break leads to a high speed part, but the song remains catchy and purposeful, only the guitar solo does not fully convince. By the way, the partly uninspired solos are the Achilles heel of the output. The same must be said with regard to the production. "Tapping the Vein" does not suffer from a bad mix, but it sounds a little bit butterfingered. No big deal, I just want to give you the full picture. Yet it goes without saying that I did not expect any kind of high polished thrash. This is Sodom, not Death Angel or Testament and down-to-earth dudes like Angelripper are not interested in overly clean productions. On the other hand, I am sure that Mille ignores this album for decades. Anyway, "Tapping the Vein", the last regular work with Chris Witchhunter (R.I.P.), marks neither a highlight nor the lowest point of the formation's creative work.

The fifth offering from German thrashers Sodom, “Tapping the Vein,” is where the band really starts to experiment and play with their sound by basically offering up an album that contains everything they’ve done before and morph into a variation that makes for some worthy results when combined with new influences and elements.

One of the better qualities in this record is the fact that, despite this being ironically labeled as the experimental album in the band’s discography, there’s a thorough attempt at keeping this wholly traditional and recognizable as a band effort. Most importantly here is the welcomed return to a chaotic, frenzied riff-based attack that was missing on the previous album that recalls their early days in terms of intensity and intent to kill, such is the intensity on several of these songs. Frantically trying to riff along at a speed that was hardly attempted before in the bands’ history gives this such a fun attitude as the songs bend along with far more technicality than expected within the chaotic frame. As a side effect, this level of brutality and chaos in the music creates a sound more akin to death metal than anything they’ve ever recorded, and many tracks abandon their proto-black metal/punk and speed metal sound in favor of this new wave of technical-based chaos riffing, and feels far more like a logical continuation of their mid-period successes than what came after, the record preceding this one, ever did. This is mostly accomplished with the welcomed return of a stylistic element present in those successful works in the form of the lengthy instrumental interludes in the middle of the song where the band simply thrashes away with an up-tempo riff for several moments, a perfect situation overall for head-banging and continues the tradition carried forth in those records here with a strong combination with these newer, more brutal influences. Now, there’s still a lot of the band’s other early influences in here, for the amazing drum-work featured here is simply a large part of the band’s work and gets carried over into this collection of songs, and there’s also the vocals that are now given a deeper, darker touch to compliment the darker, deathlier material. Fear not, the traditional mid-range growls and snarls are still here from his punkier days so they still get a few chances to let loose here.

There’s a lot to love here in the record, and is thankfully divided up into two parts to really make it easier to digest overall. The first half of this is simply filled with traditional Sodom pieces that range from the absolutely vicious barnburner to a mid-tempo attack and even some nice, melodic moments that have always been a minor part of the band’s sound. All of the songs, though, are still filled with those traditional Sodom elements of frenetic, lively riffing that gives off a large amount of energy through a strong combination of some technical-influenced leads and plenty of that dexterous drumming that can produce moments of pure thrash splendor as easily as they can dip into the murkiness of death metal. For the most part, it’s still solid thrash territory here, but the fact that they get so close here on this first half is a nice surprise and gives the album a strong, full baseline to build on as it shows the band playing around and experimenting on their familiar works quite nicely rather than just on a select song or so buried deep in the later part of the album. For the most part, the experiment works as the brutality afforded to the songs isn’t all that out-of-place to the band considering where they were going for the most part, and in an odd way the lineage brought them here for it seems to feature the band having brought all their past glory into one place and expanded the sound with a new toy by injected their dirty thrash with a dose of technicality and some death metal brutality, then focused the result into a superb collection of songs overall.

Even though the album could essentially be called an experimental album in regards to the band’s career, granted a disputable point but certainly arguable at certain intervals within, the second half is where the band really lets loose and trying new tricks. After being completely absent for the upper part of the album, minor hints of punk return to the core are found here, mostly in those simplistic riffs and bouncy drum-patterns that are far removed from the more technical and devastating material that has been employed throughout here. However, rather than attempt to incorporate those punk-influences into a more cohesive effort with the rest of the material, they’re kept where they are as simplistic punk/thrash hybrids and don’t carry the same urgency and weight as the others, though they still carry the intensity factor to make up for it. The other big experiment here is a rather curious effort that offers a slowing of the tempo down to near doom-like levels that are mixed with atmospheric riffing, melodic paces and vocals and a generally relaxed vibe that never really keeps it’s thrash roots intact until the ending, and the ability to be as progressive as the track calls for is a nice step for the band that meshes well with the influx of technicality in the different tracks elsewhere, even if they’re not that technical or even experimental with playing around with those elements. There’s the odd traditional straightforward thrasher here and there to keep things on course, but this is where the experimental argument could easily be made.

The songs here are actually a lot of fun and definitely have a lot to love about them. Opener ‘Body Parts’ is a vicious blast of detonating, technical drumming with frenetic, intense riffing during the blasting rhythm at the beginning, lengthy thrash interlude and a return to more vicious riffing at the end to create a strong intro track. More impressive, though, is album highlight ‘Skinned Alive,’ as a thunderous, dexterous drumming intro with subtle bass-work underneath segues into vicious whirlwinds of technical-influenced thrash laced with utterly intense riffing, oppressive drumming and a stellar mid-paced thrash beat to create one of the band’s more enduring classics and is one of the album’s most brutal tracks in the process. Stepping off the throttle slightly, ‘One Step over the Line’ combines steady mid-tempo riffing with rattling bass-work, epic pacing with spacious patterns and chugging drumming with plenty of melodic pacing that feels more like a traditional track rather than the more experimental and brutal offerings found within. The vicious ‘Deadline’ is back to the more extreme ends of the spectrum with chaotic, frenzied riffing patterns, absolutely blasting drumming that adds an intensity and viciousness to the tempo and speed of the material before a slightly-slower middle-section drops the tempo for the outer momentum. Keeping up the intensity is the punchy ‘Bullet in the Head,’ a double-bass-driven punk-ish tune with up-tempo riffing and sterling drum-work that adjusts to the varying tempo-shifts as it tries to maintain a thrash feel throughout but still feels too driven by punk in the riffing to do so but remains a fun way to end the first half nonetheless.

The second half of the album, despite being somewhat of an experimental effort to the band’s sound, is still filled with some quality songs. ‘The Crippler’ starts it off with pounding, intense riffing that’s quite similar to a death metal attack along with the closest death metal-like vocals on the album only for the pounding thrash-like drumming to keep it from truly crossing over into that realm. Even more of a stylistic change is ‘Wachturm,’ which carries on a mid-tempo punk feel through-and-through with simplistic riffing, bouncy bass-lines and vocals with rather straight-forward drumming that never really changes gears throughout and perhaps the cleanest vocals on the album, making for a rather conflicting shift between the tracks. Things return to normal with the title track, with a straight-forward pounding intro with mid-tempo riffing, rattling bass-work that ambles along with the groovy tempo and fantastic drumming that kicks into a bigger speed on the second half with more thrashing drumming, frantic riffing and stellar thrash interlude that gives this a real classic and timeless feel for the band, signaling another highlight effort. Matching it in the intensity stakes is ‘Back to War,’ as the detonating drumming at hyper-speed with matching frenzied riffing carries an up-tempo pace with the stellar drumming that eventually settles on a punk-like rhythm that rides out through a fiery solo section into a blasting finale, making for two absolutely stellar speed-mongers. Despite initially starting off strong, the lone weak song is ‘Hunting Season’ is rather curious as simple pounding with atmospheric bass-work, utterly-intense drumming and full-on barnburner-paced speed throughout as it builds in intensity should be a lot of fun yet never really steps across the line into the upper echelon due to a rather curious factor of being too similar in style to other tracks already doing this better and therefore never really excelling on its own merits. It gets saved with another album highlight in closer ’Reincarnation,’ where a majestic, epic intro with slower pace, doom-like riffing with deadly vocals, haunting theatrics and rattling bass-work mix with a progressive bridge section that leads to fiery later half with increased energy, more drumming urgency and some technical riffing, so while it’s slightly too long as the haunting interlude that stretches the track out this is a monster effort and really comes off splendidly overall.

In the end, what we’re left with on this album is perhaps one of the most determined, focused and intense Sodom records in their discography, and is overall among their upper-tier works. Granted, it’s not as legendary as those earlier efforts which helped to forge an entire sub-genre and influence thousands of bands and musicians alike, but is more or less enjoyable for what it does with the material within, which is just plain-and-simple fun. The performances are simply spot-on, everyone gets a chance to shine whether it be in a drum-solo section, stellar riffing patterns or just cavernous bass-work because the production of the album sends off that vibe, all of which will find a place of admiration with a listener. Frankly, this one seems to fall in line more with their past efforts and not the preceding effort, which in the timeline feels out-of-place, while this one is more like a true continuation of those stellar works with the amount of traditional elements at play that are expertly played with and experimented on here, which make for an overall enjoyable and enthusiastic experience that’ll warm over fans of their traditional works and the more extreme metal fans that seemed to be the target here.

The lines that separate death metal and thrash metal were pretty well blurred by the time the 90s first rolled in, and in a few cases it could be argued that the style endured in spite of massive setbacks from 1992 on via a number of older school bands like Death, Obituary, and Benediction. But less attention is paid to a number of small outliers in the thrash scene who followed the same path, perhaps given the extensive number of better known acts that were caught up in the groove craze that Metallica and Pantera had started. Sodom stands as arguably the lone example of an older thrash band, Teutonic or American, that almost crossed over into death metal territory by adopting a truly extreme and aggressive approach that similarly won Demolition Hammer the unofficial title of being an embryonic death metal band in some quarters, while similarly resembling the niche between the two styles inhabited by Sepultura and Possessed.

Truth be told, every member of the Teutonic Trio exhibited some of the same qualities that Slayer did in the mid 80s while still retaining a distinctly thrashing character. But where "Tapping The Vein" differs with any of the work done by any of said German bands before is that the lines are almost blurred to the point of being actual death/thrash. Angelripper's vocals are so vile and sepulchral that they tend to exhibit qualities of both Chuck Schuldiner and Nocturno Culto, the riffs shuffle back and forth between a frenetic mixture of rapid chugs and tremolo lines more in line with "Leprosy" than "Persecution Mania" in terms of their speed and intensity and a thudding groove approach to slower material that is somewhat Metallica-like, but a little too dissonant and ugly to pass for what was typically accepted as mainline groove in the 90s. Everything from the dark and murky production to the occasional creepy keyboard atmosphere (especially on the closer "Reincarnation") have more in common with Nocturnus, Death and Messiah than with anything previously conceived in the thrash realm, and a slightly less muddy guitar tone is really the only thing keeping this from morphing into a direct emulation of said bands.

What truly throws the listener for a loop on this album, and probably the main reason why the death metal tendencies are so hard to miss is that things begin on the most intense note possible and subsequently takes very little time for a breather. "Body Parts" and "Skinned Alive" have a lyrical tendency towards gore that's difficult to miss, and the music contained within is way too fast and frenzied for even the likes of Sepultura save maybe the most intense moments of "Beneath The Remains". Similar stories are told in the cases of "Deadline", "The Crippler" and "Back To War", complete with all the obligatory drum mayhem and noise-ridden lead guitar shred fests to rival Morbid Angel, save a lack of overt blast beats. There are some brief moments of rest to explore some groove territory, culimating in a slower, "Eye Of The Beholder" styled Metallica homage in "One Step Over The Line" and a more upper mid-tempo punk oriented crusher in "Wachturm", each one emphasizing a scaled back thrash character with slightly cleaner gruff vocals. But even when at a slower pace, every second of this album is an exercise in sonic warfare that makes up for any lack of unforgettable riff work as heard when Frank Blackfire was manning the guitar with an unfettered, take no prisoners assault.

Sadly thrash metal was all but gone from the metal world by the time 1992 came around, but Sodom stands as one of an elite few that didn't get the message. Sometimes the flow of history makes it impossible to swim up stream, but in this instance, "Tapping The Vein" likens itself to a stubborn salmon that bucks the rapids and makes it to the spawning pool in spite of the journey literally killing it. In contrast to their 2 German counterparts, Sodom didn't spend most of the 90s in a stylistic rut, and this album can be seen in the same light as the lion's share of their classic 80s output. It's probably the only release put out the band that can appeal directly to the early 90s death metal fanatics rather than the either hardened mid 80s Slayer adherents or early 1st wavers still clinging to their pre-LP efforts, all the while still having all the necessary elements to keep their base satisfied. It's the same gas mask toting warrior, just with a bigger gun and a heavier dose of steroids.

After “Persecution Mania” and “Agent Orange had put Sodom on the map as one of the leaders of the German thrash metal scene in the late 1980s, the somewhat lackluster follow-up “Better Off Dead” was a bit of a letdown, but the band recovered quickly and came back with a vengeance in forging “Tapping the Vein”, an album considered by many to be their best effort to date. To be sure, the band has since put out numerous very strong releases, especially during the many years performing as a very stable three-piece consisting of Tom Angelripper, Bernemann and Bobby Schottkowski, but the point can be made that none of them are quite as good as this, perhaps the heaviest and most vicious album in their extensive catalog. In some ways “Tapping the Vein”, despite a few tracks featuring the band’s trademark punk influences, is almost as close to death metal as it is to thrash, not only in terms of Tom’s slightly altered vocal delivery but also as far as the actual music is concerned, as songs like “Skinned Alive”, “The Crippler”, “Hunting Season” or the title track, in all of their uncompromising brutality, are perhaps more akin to, say, the early releases of a band like Death than anything that came out of the Bay Area in the 1980s and 90s.

Thanks to Angelripper’s almost-death metal growls, all the songs gain a rougher, more brutal edge than usual, including those displaying Sodom’s customary punk leanings (“Bullet in the Head”, “Back to War”). Speaking of punk, “Wachturm” is probably as close to a full-fledged punk rock tune as we’re ever going to get from this band, and I for one hope they never write another one quite like it. How this track could possibly become something of a crowd favorite at live concerts is completely beyond me, as it is extremely bland and unimaginative (well, even for punk rock standards) on top of featuring some of the most amateurish gang shouts and stupidest lyrics this band has ever written. Though this is obviously supposed to be sort of a fun track and not something to be taken very seriously, it is still incredibly, well, stupid, which everyone unfortunate enough to understand a bit of German will likely agree on. When intending to bash some religious or other group, at least try to do it somewhat intelligently, lest you end up sounding precisely as dumb as the group you’re actually trying to attack. With ideas for goofy songs like these, it’s easy to see why, in later years, Angelripper felt the need to come up with his misguided alcohol-fuelled side project named Onkel Tom. Well, if only he had confined such ideas to that particular band: this is nothing but dumb proletarian music for the masses that should have never ended up on a Sodom record. Luckily, “Wachturm” is the only real dud on this otherwise excellent album, although the closing “Reincarnation”, while not a bad song in any way, lacks cohesion and simply doesn’t contain enough riffs or exciting moments for a song almost eight minutes in length. Besides, it feels a bit like a rehash of “Resurrection” off the previous record “Better Off Dead”, which was a decidedly mediocre song to begin with.

The remaining tracks, however, all range from very good to great quality-wise. “Body Parts” (including that delightfully hilarious line “wonders of technology, we’ve got plastic surgery”) is a fast, no-frills thrasher with a barrage of catchy riffs. “One Step Over the Line” slows things down for the first time and is a very well-written tune with a couple of smooth riffs and hooks and some the album’s best and most thoughtful lyrics to boot, showing that Tom can do a whole lot better than “Wachturm” when he actually puts his mind to it. In the end, however, the vicious hybrid death-thrash cuts mentioned above are the real strength of this album. Coupled with the meaty production courtesy of Harris Johns, they are good enough that even a surefire skip candidate like “Wachturm” cannot alter the fact that “Tapping the Vein” ranks right up there with the best albums the mighty Sodom have put out over the course of their long and illustrious career.

On a side note, the cover artwork is somewhat peculiar and conducive to all kinds of interpretations and questions, like why would anyone go to battle with a gun that uses your own blood as ammunition? Oh well, at least that shade of blue looks kind of cool …

Choicest cuts: “Body Parts”, “One Step Over the Line”, “The Crippler”, “Tapping the Vein”, “Hunting Season”

Tapping the Vein is not often mentioned in the same breath as the favored Sodom classics like Persecution Mania and Agent Orange, but if I can say one in its favor, it's pretty characteristic of the 'pure' Sodom sound. Take everything you loved about those albums, crank up the density and intensity, and simply slaughter the fan where he stands. That was the purpose of this effort, and to that extent, it's an enormous success. Where it falls apart, though, is in the smaller details. It offers almost no surprises, no huge choruses that blow the mind like a "Nuclear Winter" or "Sodomy and Lust". It's little more than business as usual, but if you're a steadfast Sodomite, that might be exactly what you want to hear.

As far as just the tones of the mix, this is perhaps one of my favorite releases from the German vets. The bass here is huge, like a meatgrinder being recorded straight to tape and then fluctuated to create notes that will act in accordance with the guitars. After but one album, Michael Hoffman had left Sodom, so the band have yet another new guitarist here in Andy Bings, but he definitely goes a long way towards renewing that Blackfire tone some might have been missing from Better Off Dead (which was a great album anyway). Tom Angelripper sounds fantastic here, with one of his most bloodthirsty, violent performance, very often bordering on the death metal grunts he was partially responsible for creating in the first place. The whole effort sounds like steel artillery being shot off in an enclosed stadium, painting the bleachers with viscera.

There are also a few undeniably great songs here, including the two barnstormers that blast open the proceedings, "Body Parts" and "Skinned Alive", riff choked and overflowing with the maniacal, distorted bass lines. Love the fucking vocal echoes in "Body Parts" during that sick breakdown. You simply cannot sit still for that. After this, the quality becomes a little mixed. "Deadline", "Hunting Season", and "The Crippler" are murderous and truly exciting, while a few of the others like "Bullet in the Head" and the rocking "One Step Over the Line" aren't so blessed in the writing department, though Tom's vocal presence does a bit to compensate. The leads here can rip aluminum with ease, and tucked into a few of the tracks are some excellent, raid fire rhythm guitars. I can completely do without "Wachturm/Erwachet", which is yet another of those Sodom stapes: the German punk/thrash/rock track, but "Reincarnation" is another standout, nearly 8 minutes long with some cautiously elevated warfare.

In the end, I love about half of Tapping the Vein and shall until I die, but I would probably find the rest skippable if the tones weren't so damn good. This is probably the most straightforward the band has ever and will ever record, the very essence of their warlike personality, conjured in the lyrics, the riffing and the blood-drugged, 'Rogue Trooper' mascot on the cover. It's sheer, unapologetic and shows a band that was in no danger of flying the surrender flag when thrash was beginning to get raked across the coals. If I could somehow experience the better 1987-89 material with this same production standard, I'd probably be so happy I would cease to exist, but the lack of total consistency in the songwriting drags it down below their more recognizable classics.

-autothrall
http://www.fromthedustreturned.com

Well, Sodom must’ve realised their previous album had a few weak moments. Furthermore pretty much all thrash acts from the eighties were slowly getting an identity crises. Kreator were on their way to experiment on the ‘Renewal’ album (quite successfully) and let’s not talk about the downfall of post Cracked Brain Destruction. When thrash was rapidly losing ground after ’90, most bands watered down, got groovy, and a few desperate thrash bands jumped the death metal bandwagon (for instance Dutch thrashers Thanatos on ‘Realm Of Ecstasy’). We just had to wait what Sodom would do...with yet another new guitarist...

Sodom take back a lot of harshness, protoblack and death metal tendencies they’d showed earlier during their ‘In the Sign of Evil’ and ‘Obsessed by Cruelty’ days. But since the band had actually learned to play in the years since and a new guitarist obviously has a major influence on the sound, this renewed vigour turns into a new kind of beast. We can honestly say ‘Tapping the Vein’ was their fastest and most brutal album since Persecution Mania.

Just listen to ‘The Crippler’. Once of their creepiest songs since the old days. And besides that a superb fast thrasher as well! Or try opener ‘Body Parts’. You’ll immediately recognise Sodom but you just know something is different. Is it the riffs? the vocals? Hard to pin-point but the amount of proto death metal tendencies have increased but not too much. Or that eerie middle section in the title track. Yes, this new beast is lovely! ‘Deadline’, ‘Hunting Season’, ‘Skinned Alive’, there’s so much superb thrashin’ goin’ on here.

No weak moments? Yes, Sodom once again had to record an extremely dull mid paced song. This time it’s ‘One Step Over the Line’. Why did they keep doing that? ‘Wachturm’ is a funny anti-Jehovah’s witness rock tune sung in German but stylewise would’ve been better at the end of the album obviously since it does damage the continuity and tension. The doomy ‘Reincarnation’ closes off the album and serves as a nice method for calming down.

Highlights:
Body Parts, Skinned Alive, Deadline, The Crippler, Tapping the Vein, Hunting Season

After the heights reached during the mid-to-late 80's, by the early 90's the thrash genre was in something of a rut. The "big four" had moved on to greener, more financially successful pastures (at least in the case of Metallica, Megadeth and Anthrax - Slayer just kind of stagnated, at least until the abortion that was Diabolus in Musica) and many of the lower-tier bands just disappeared, either from breaking up or fleeing like rats from a sinking ship for the rising grunge scene, or alternatively, the death and black metal scenes, which, for many fans, replaced thrash as the genres of choice.

Almost certainly as a reaction to this, in 1992 Sodom released Tapping the Vein, an underrated album that is several times more heavy and aggressive than it's predecessors, especially in the wake of 1990's Better Off Dead, which displayed a cleaner, slightly more accessible Sodom. Tapping the Vein is certainly the band's most death metal album for a plethora of reasons. The lyrical themes have changed - the war themes are not so prevalent as before, although still present. Instead, we get treated to somewhat gorier tales of drug abuse, horrific plastic surgery and prostitution.

Tom Angelripper's vocals are a much deeper growl here, as opposed to the thrash metal snarl of before and quite frankly he's never sounded more confident. His basswork doesn't stand out anywhere near as much as previously, in keeping with the albums more death metal feel, but it is still perfectly competent. New guitarist Andy Brings is a great guitarist; technically he may not do anything outstanding, but he doesn't need to - his riffs and solos suit this style of deathy thrash well. Its a pity he didn't stay in Sodom. The late Chris Witchhunter makes his final appearance on a Sodom album (excluding 2007's In the Final Sign of Evil) and he still has his trademark drumming style, although he is a little more professional and not quite as sloppy as on some of the band's earlier efforts.

There is a definite savage feel to this album - Sodom have never sounded so ferocious as they do here; indeed, they sound completely furious and brutal. There is a constant feeling that they are about to really break loose and possibly overreach themselves; fortunately this never happens. The downside to all this extremity is that, aside from Wachturm, a fun, incredibly catchy number with German lyrics, there no punky songs present that Sodom are well known for. Really, there is no feeling here of either Motorhead or Venom; instead, they now take their influences from Floridian death metal. Its hard to believe that a band who wrote a song like "Ausgebombt" also wrote this album. The songwriting, though, is very consistent - therefore choosing a highlight is difficult, although the aforementioned Wachturm, the brutal Body Parts (which may well be the most brutal song of the album) and the album's sleeper pick, Hunting Season, are definite standouts. There are a couple of let-downs though - One Step Over the Line and Deadline don't do much of anything and Reincarnation is slightly strange, reminiscent of Resurrection from the previous album. However, these songs don't detract from the album as a whole.

It's a pity that Sodom dropped the ball after this with their next few albums. As it stands, this is a testament to one of the band's more interesting periods and is certainly their most brutal album. Recommended.

You can say what you want but Sodom were the only ones of the German trio to have conserved a primordial brutality even during the thrash period of crises and chaos. Kreator and Destruction reached levels of pure shame with weak or, at best, not thrash metal efforts while these undying thrash metal worshippers didn’t care about anything, following the path to extremism that has always been their most important characteristic. This Tapping The Vein was put out in a period in which more or less every “old” thrash metal band was going crazy for stopped chords sounds and sluggish, crappy groove influences. This album is a step further in extremism by Sodom, being far more brutal than Better Off Dead and the releases by the end of the 80s.

It can be seen as a continuation of the early efforts because it shows a band that has recovered in primordial heaviness, forgetting awhile the more mature and less impulsive influences of the last period. So, this album is, to me, somehow more bound to a general form of early death metal because here the band took the classic Sodom thrash metal (already not the smartest one) to bring it to another level of brutality and nastiness. The band is again truly belligerent, angry and rawer. The production is awesome to me and supports the violence of the instruments in a perfect way, giving them a clear cut they deserve, conserving that raw touch that contributes in creating a truly gloom and devastating air of nuclear devastation.

The general tempo on the album is the up one and the first tracks don’t make sense in speed. They are angry, devastating and pounding. The riffs are truly pissed off and simple but extremely catchy. “Body parts” and “Skinned Alive” are just amazing in their schizophrenic, relentless tempo while “One Step Over The Line” is the first mid paced stop. Witchhunter does a great work here. He is always precise, quite inventive and most of all total impact. When he comes for the up tempo, the speed is unbelievable. As you can listen, the guitar distortion is far different from any Sodom release and it’s far more primordial and raw, following the dry out drums sound and the more suffocated vocals by Tom. His vocals on this album are truly massive, black oriented and nasty like in early 80s style.

Check the tremolo picking united to the palm muting riffs and the fast bass drum parts united to the up tempo on “Deadline” and you will to thank me. The violence is unbelievable and this time none can stop Sodom from destroying our poor ears. So, without hesitations we jump on the punkish thrash violence of “Bullet in The Head” and the death/thrash primordial sounds of the massive, gloom “The Crippler”. The violence reaches level of madness but we can’t stop our march because going on listening to these violent outputs, you want more and more and “Wachturm” is here to fill our veins of insanity through lots of punkish/black/thrash riffs and mosh tempo. We are not already stuffed, so we continue with the darker march of the title track that increases the speed, alternating up tempo parts to sudden stops for the refrain.

In “Back to War” the most violent side arises again and the bass drum work is again pounding with lots of galloping parts and an easily recognizable refrain/verse. “Hunting Season” is again fast, displaying no compromise parts and a good alternation of open chords riffs to palm muting. “Reincarnation”, in its dark, slow and apocalyptic march is even welcomed because at the end you are truly devastated and woozy. Anyway, the keyboards parts are well mixed with a more suggestive and unearthly atmosphere. All in all, this album remains one of the most violent efforts by this band and a lesson in heaviness to all those “no more thrash bands” of that period. Sodom are here to stay.

I am admittedly very poorly versed in classic thrash metal, and I'm even more poorly versed in the 'crucial' releases of Sodom; so much so that this is actually the only album of theirs I own. I know that it's a really good one, though. 'Tapping The Vein' seems to be one of the more underrated Sodom albums, but I can't really propose any reason why, apart from there being more famous and ostensibly important albums by the band out there. This is very heavy and intense thrash, which does appeal a bit more to a death metaller like me who doesn't particularly like Exodus or Anthrax. I've always been drawn more to Teutonic thrash metal than most American bands, and Sodom is effectively cemented as my favorite.

The music on this album, for the most part, seems extremely fast, despite operating at a lower tempo than most death and black metal bands. Very aggressive, uptempo thrash beats dominate the drumming, with a feel like they're constantly leaning forward and might collapse at any time. The effect is aided by the riffing, which alternates between speedy and vicious tremolo interesting (very excellent) and mid-paced thrash power chords (not very interesting). I've never been big on the archtypical 'thrash break'; it generally just ruins the flow of the song for me, which is why I appreciate songs where they're brief and kept to a minimum, like opener 'Body Parts'. Another element I enjoy a lot: the very harsh, verging on death growl vocals of Angelripper, which sort of sound like the most brutal singing that could be found on a Dark Angel album. No good-time shouts? Sign me right up.

The only time Sodom really falters is on slow songs which seem unnecessary in the context of the album, like 'One Step Over The Line' which honestly sounds like a Metallica b-side, and 'Reincarnation', though to a lesser degree. When the tempo is up, so is the quality, even on 'happier' songs like 'Wachturm', which might be the catchiest song in the history of metal. Essentially every track is a standout (which is a pretty surprising feat on its own), but the best are easily 'Body Parts', 'Skinned Alive', and the titanic of utterly BRUTAL thrash, 'The Crippler'. 'Once you cross the line/I will break your spine... THE CRIPPLAH! (THE CRIPPLAH)'. Indeed, Tom. Indeed.

There's a bunch of other great, underrated songs as well: 'Hunting Season', 'Back To War', 'Bullet In The Head', etc. They're all packed with great riffs, great, really memorable vocal patterns, and spirited, intense drumming. This is probably some of the best thrash out there; at least as far as my tastes go. It's heavy and riffy and verges on death metal at places, which is generally how I like my thrash, and it never makes me feel like I should go out and get a beer with my bros before getting ritually sodomized to get in some heavy metal frat. On that note, Municipal Waste is apparently throwing an AWESOME kegger that I just HAVE to be at!