Sodom Does War Metal - "Epitome of Torture" Review (56%)
Much like the late days of speed metal, a genre Sodom are ironically known to have heavily contributed to the legitimisation - and false advertising as "thrash metal", but that's another story - underground metal is bastardising standardising itself into a war metal/death metal hybrid that emphasises fast slamming rhythm without the obvious rock, jazz and punk breakdowns that make it clear that the music adopting these characteristics belongs to the trend-hopping and genre-squatting side of metal - i.e. the commercial, the posers, the fake.
Sodom's second-to-last album "Epitome of Torture" is in many ways more interesting than their latest effort "Decision Day", in that by applying the structure of second-wave Scandinavian metal to the raw onslaught of Warkvlt/Sarcófago/Reiklos/Incantation styled proto-black metal, stands as an innovator to this sub-genre which tends to liberally combine "Onward to Golgotha", "Hvis Lyset Tar Oss" and "Bestial War Metal" into a single style that, much like the bands which combined "The Epilogue to Sanity", "Verminlust" and "Miasma" into a single voice - looking at you, Demonecromancy - no matter how initially inspired, eventually standardises itself and becomes just about interchangeable.
The sad fact of "Epitome of Torture" is that a lot of good songwriting went into this album, and some quality riff-writing as well, but this band remains literally imprisoned by the style in which they choose to adhere to, much like their British counterparts of Venom - although they seem actually, medically retarded, not just artistically myopic like Sodom.
Does it work? About as much as you can expect from war metal.
Sodom Does War Metal
About half of this "Epitome of Torture" album, preying on the desires of all metalheads who secretly wish there were somewhere undiscovered in an underground cave another four hours worth of "Withdrawal", borrows rhythms and arrangement patterns from that highly-esteemed work, as well as developing known riff types from the above mentioned influences.
None of the music on "Epitome of Torture" is necessarily bad. It does not, however, add up to enough to be compelling, like previous Sodom works, like "Obsessed by Cruelty" and "Persecution Mania".
"Epitome of Torture" represents the most professional work from this band so far, and clearly exceeds any previous efforts in that department, but the derivative nature of its riffs make songs indistinguishable both from one another, and in terms of structure, creating the musical equivalent of passionately listening to a flood sewer while masturbating... and not even the good kind of sewer, mind you, just the waste disposal.
For every good riff, four "standard" ones borrowed from the war metal/Phantaclone/Incantaclone group crowd them out. Periodic moments of greatness are balanced by a double frequency of moments of staggering obviousness which make nu Sodom's music hard to get behind, particularly if you plan on indulging in multiple listening sessions. Hearing this one on a regular basis? No thanks, I'll skip.
"Epitome of Torture" is not a total disaster, like Behemoth's risible "The Satanist", but it is overrated both in terms of riff quality and songwriting. Overall, "Epitome of Torture" is dispensable, flat and with not too much to offer. Replace it with "The Birth of a Cursed Elysium", at least you'll get to truly experience blackened war metal's savage butchery.
Epitome of Torture score: 56/100.
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