Sodom

Kreator, once again, have ruined it for everyone. With that German thrash act putting out the best albums of their career, how are contemporaries Destruction and Sodom supposed to keep up? Kudos to both for trying, pumping out releases at an alarmingly high rate and a consistently average quality. On Sodom's latest, there aren't many surprises: the tempos are mid-stomping to double-step polka, the vocals go back and forth between a screaming German here and growling German there, while the riffs are, of course, what it all comes down to. I very much enjoy that there's a song called "S.O.D.O.M.," "Cannibal" does a mid-tempo stomp that would do Sepultura or even Slayer proud, while "Into the Skies of War" is just a great, memorable, catchy thrash tune. Maybe it's a tad more mid-tempo than we'd like to see from these Teutonic terrors, but we say that every time with this group, don't we?