Search - Sodom :: In the Sign of Evil / Obsessed By Cruelty

Well...........eh....

Eric H | Chicagoland | 07/25/2009

(3 out of 5 stars)

"Alright so I bought this CD from a local purveyor of metal albums, mostly because they didn't have anything really interesting at the time.



So I bought this.



I've heard of Sodom, both in name and the odd song once in a while. And no, it never really moved me the way the first time I pleasured myself did, I figured buying this album would be enough impulsiveness to get it out of my system before I cursed out the nearest toddler solely for the rush it would bring.



Anyway, after giving this album a good listen and a few days to soak into my brains, I can only say, with an air of frozen pizza in my breath: "It's ok. Not amazing. Not awesome. Not Earth-shakingly, towel-snappingly wicked cool. Not terrible. Not a chop in the pills. Just ok."



The riffs aren't particularly catchy or inspired. Distorted, fast, and aggressive. Although that all means pretty much nothing when there isn't much of a musical motif around. The solos aren't much to hear (WOW! He hit higher notes during them!). They aren't bad solos, but neither are they good. I guess they exist in a realm that knows not any emotional response. The bass is.... well it's a metal band, you're lucky if you hear it for more then four consecutive seconds. Drums are just drums, they keep time. And the songs as a whole are about as motivating as giving an old man a sponge bath with your bottom quarters. I didn't really feel anything. The songs didn't make me bop my head to the beat or shake my fist in rage at the man for always trying to bring me down. Nor did I burst into a hoedown or wave my hands in the air like I just don't care. Any kind of reaction would be sufficient.



Okay, I am not easily impressed. Not at all. Not even by a magician doing card tricks with his anus. Whether that makes me more "metal" or less I really don't give a blanking blank. Yes, Sodom is a metal band. Yes, I like metal music. No, I am not going to worship every single metal band in existence because I have to or face trampling from the massive, ignorant hordes of sheep who all feel the need to prove something. This is an OKAY album. But it's nothing special. You could look up about a million billion underground black metal bands and find the same thing in a only slightly different package. Like swapping Coke for Coke Zero: same pisswater, different can but without all the stuff in it!



So Sodom is just that: It's the middle child. It's the band that is good enough to warrant a listen and then move on to anything else. If it were any worse, people would flock to in the same amazement people flock to a man thinly spread across the street after a horrifying automobile accident like butter on toast. And if it were any better people would swarm the way they do to hearing "FREE POPSICLES" on the street when it's a hundred and four out. So in a way, this album just shows that if you are good enough, but not great, you too can receive the same indifference I feel for this album.



Maybe their other stuff is better, I will have to hear it."