Sodom: Partisan

It’s been all change in the Sodom ranks, with guitarist of 20+ years Bernd Kost and drummer of nearly a decade, Markus Freiwald, rather unceremoniously despatched with by frontman and bassist Tom Angelripper. In their place arrive the guitar duo of Frank ‘Blackfire’ Gosdzik and Yorck Segatz, the former of which was also with the band during the 80s; while the drum stool is now occupied by Stefan ‘Husky’ Huskens. What hasn’t changed is the Sodom sound, the band’s new four-piece configuration ensuring a richer, fuller, but still traditional European thrash attack. By way of introduction comes Partisan, a three track EP with two new studio cuts and one live offering.

The title-track opens proceedings with the rip and grind this band have long been known for and while it’s hardly ground breaking stuff, if you’re looking to loosen the neck muscles, you could do much worse. Whereas “Conflagration� offers a deeper groove and a few tempo changes as it provides a slightly more intriguing edge to what is probably the slightly better of the two new tracks.

The live take on “Tired And Red�, recorded at the Rock Hard Festival in 2018, is probably the strongest offering in evidence. Chosen because it originates from the Agent Orange album, which was released during Blackfire’s first time with the band, there’s no doubting the song’s class. The performance captured does it proud, especially as the juggernaut riff after the mid-song breakdown kicks into gear. And it’s here that you can definitely understand where the desire to add the extra guitar to the line-up came from.

Long time fans of Sodom might have been concerned at the turn of events that have led up to the Partisan EP’s release, but with two solid new excursions and a stellar live cut, those fears should be quickly allayed. Plans have already been put in place for the band’s 16th full length release, on this evidence it should be worth the wait.

Track Listing
1. Partisan
2. Conflagration
3. Tired & Red (live at the Rock Hard Festival 2018)

Added: December 15th 2018
Reviewer: Steven Reid
Score:
Related Link: Partisan @ Nuclear Blast
Hits: 903
Language: english

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