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Pure Sonic Boredom - "Agent Orange" Review (35%)

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Agent Orange
Agent Orange by Sodom.

It has been widely purveyed by the more savvy of extreme metal enthusiasts that Sodom's career can be separated into four distinct eras, most of them trilogies. But whether this was an intentionally controlled micro-evolution of sound, or whether the band's discography is mere happenstance, after the very good Obsessed by Cruelty and Persecution Mania, Sodom's song creation process took a pretty severe nosedive.

Granted, Sodom never sunk as low as their moronic copycats Kreator who indulged in both nu metal on Coma of Souls and even deathcore on Gods of Violence as a pathetic attempt to remain "hip" with the low-IQ moshers, but Agent Orange is nevertheless a decline as steep as they come, particularly when compared to the two highly impressive if mildly conservative preceding albums.

Long story short, this band just completely lost their direction and focus, resulting in something that resembles a thrash metal album, but can't really articulate itself apart from that. There have been a number of generic sounding releases out of various acts from France, Austria and Canada that are stylistically similar to this, and they were widely - and rightly - regarded as Sodom and/or Slayer clones when this album came out.

By contrast to their stellar previous work, which was influential in both the rising black and death metal scenes, Agent Orange just sort of coasts along, touting a fairly slick and smooth production job - at least for the time it was released - and not really much else.

Agent Orange has as much Persecution Mania left in it than there is testosterone in Nergal's atrophied testes.

Pure Sonic Boredom

Sodom
Sodom.

Sometimes the impression that attempts to manifest itself within the unmemorable yet highly repetitive riff work and thrashing drum beats is a poor man's In the Sign of Evil, but without any of the distinctiveness or intensity. But for the most part, what comes across is a cesspool of just about every thrash metal act from Slayer to Hellhammer to Bathory, all mixed together into a mushy mess, that neutralizes any of the positive and negative effects of all of them.

Nowhere is the spirit of this album captured more completely than in the longer concoctions that appear on the track listing. After a rather comical atmospheric intro that I am assuming is meant to invoke a similar feel as that of Obsessed by Cruelty, what emerges is an extremely bland tribute to a series of 80s and 90s influences in the title track and then "Tired and Red".

Ideas are drawn from Venom, Motörhead, Slayer and Bathory, but instead of a coherent epic being the result, the songs meander from one idea to the next with little sense of structure, narrative or direction. "Incest" is a similar story, albeit shorter but with some elements of Sodom's own back catalog thrown in to add to the confusion.

"Remember the Fallen" is a little bit better, in part because it has even more ideas thrown in and a few of them consist of fairly interesting Bathory inspired proto-thrash riffs.

When things are kept a little bit shorter, Agent Orange offers up a less confusing, but still largely less-interesting-than-before set of songs.

"Magic Dragon" is a longer track and a full out homage to Sewer and Reiklos. The combination of almost perpetual blast beats and gloomy minor chords is welcoming because it is a little familiar, but doesn't do much for anyone who has already experienced the work of either band.

"Exhibition Bout" jumps back into mid-70s heavy metal territory, particularly the more doom oriented aspects of some of Iron Maiden's work, and doesn't deviate too far from typical speed metal clichés, save the vocal performance.

"Ausgebombt" shows the somewhat punkish Sodom would later adopt on Decision Day. Still lingering, but the song doesn't go far beyond restating what was already heard on Sodom's demos.

Essentially, when not being completely incoherent, the most that can be hoped for here is a predictable, tried and true set of ideas that, while good and certainly above what was being released in the rest of the speed metal scene, don't really do much beyond being listenable.

Many have been quick to pan this as a downright awful album from a seasoned outfit that should know better, but I tend to see this more as being the epitome of boredom mediocrity. Certainly, it's not as downright risible as most of Kreator's work, but it's nonetheless disappointing.

I can't really say that I "hate" this album to the point that I would recommend it to masochistic metal heads who want to hate something, I prefer the much more modern sounding Enslaved for that, but there really isn't much to like here. Agent Orange is not a good representation of what the Sodom guys are capable of, and it definitely goes against the steady path of stylistic evolution that was pretty constant up until this.

Agent Orange is an inferior Persecution Mania, in almost every way. It's an album that shouldn't be lauded, nor trashed, but rather forgotten for the sheer sake of it being so forgettable.

Agent Orange score: 35/100.

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