Review by Michael on June 23, 2025.

Here we go with Sodom's seventeenth regular studio album called "The Arsonist". When some of their older album titles were in someway coping with the past (e.g. "Agent Orange"), this album title refers to the actual situation in the world we have these days. I guess you all know what I mean, just look at the news. Together with the great cover by Zbigniew M. Bielak (also responsible for Ghost for example) that show a soldier and death reconciled in peace whilst the war is raging on (personified by their mascot "Knarrenheinz" in battle dress it creates a very uneasy atmosphere.

Musically not too much has changed since their latest output "Genesis XIX" from 2020. What you can clearly hear is that they haven't written such melodic tracks as "The Harpooneer" or "Occult Perpetrator" which had some really catchy choruses. Sodom 2025 focuses more on pretty brutal riffs and uncompromising heaviness in their songs. Not that brutal as they were back in 1992 on "Tapping The Vein" which went almost into some death metal realms but this is some really blunt relentless thrash straight into your face.

One of the catchiest (and shortest) songs on the album is "The Spirits That I Called" with a cool chorus and powerful riffs. This is one of the tracks that might have fit best on "Genesis XIX".

With "Witchhunter" Angelripper and his comrades pay tribute to their former bandmember who unfortunately died in 2008. This song spreads the atmosphere of their works from the 80s/ early 90s in every pore and is a really well-done and passionate song to remember Christian Johannes Dudek as he was named in the real world. RIP.

"Battle Of Harvest Moon" isn't a track about that stupid anime shit but deals once more with the Vietnam War. It was a military operation executed in December 1965 and as such does the track sound. It has a very militaristic staccato-like drumming with a lot of fury and destruction in it. Oh, and a very dramatic, haunting guitar solo, too.

Another worth mentioning tracks are "Scavenger" and "Taphephobia". "Scavenger" starts very creeping and oppressive (and where you can hear that the drums were recorded on a 24-track-recorder just like in the 80s. This is pretty damn old school! This song turns into a very rough mid-tempo banger with a lot of twists in it. And so does "Taphephobia". This is a dirty bastard between some Motörhead-like punk riffing and more catchy, galloping thrash riffs, with Tom on the vocals sounding very pissed-off.

With "Return To God In Parts" we can find another trip back to older Sodom. Not back to the 80s but I would say that this song sounds like what they did in the middle of the 90s on such underrated albums as "Masquerade In Blood" or "Code Red". Again this is a brutal thrash assault and what Tom is performing vocally here is very diverse. He screams, groans and wheezes and if you didn't know it, you wouldn't say that he is already 62 years old.

I could write many more lines about each song in detail but I guess that everybody who is aware of that German thrash legend will know what to expect from them. This is a lesson in powerful thrash without any experiments or compromises. As always everything is super-professional executed and there aren't any flaws. What is missing is a real anthem that stands out of the rest but this is complaining on a very high level. To sum it up: this is a really good Sodom album in the fall of their career (let's hope that it is only the fall and not the winter after having read the latest news).

Rating: 8.5 out of 10