Reviews list for Sodom - Better Off Dead (1990)

Prepared for a fun album rather than a great one, I think I ended up getting both.  This has plenty of thrashing, but above anything else, it's multiple kinds of fun, the spirited kind that defines the album like a Zappa one, rather than the general kind that tries to justify the existence of an otherwise undercooked movie, like Kung Pow.  Now one thing that disappointed me about Agent Orange was the glaring inferiority of the band's attempts at straightforward heavy metal in comparison to their thrash works.  But here on Better Off Dead, songs like their cover of Thin Lizzy's Cold Sweat prove that they finally got a grip on this.  They're making fun, catchy songs of various kinds, leaving room for some raw thrash material such as Shellfire Defense and Bloodtrails.  Thing is, in place of the occasional blackened influence of previous efforts, they included some more obvious attempts at melody, and this helps differentiate the album from previous efforts while still managing the Sodom spirit.  I mean, hell, Shellfire Defense is Agent Orange material, and if you're a classic fan then you'll definitely get a big kick out of the title track.  I even went back and listened to Shellfish again.  Might be my favorite Sodom track up to this point; it left me wide-eyed, something that even the best Sodom albums haven't achieved yet.  It also takes time to be a little weird more often than not.  Gotta say I'm kinda lovin' that two-part intro to Bloodtrails.  Though I WOULD say Healing Wounds is basically speed metal filler.

Bro, treading some reviews in an effort to grasp an inkling of why this album gets any kind of slack, I found that Sodom fans consider this a disjointed work in comparison to the classics.  And to that, I say, "Check out Thembi and call me in the morning."  If you ask me, this whole albums feels the way I've been asking it to feel, a largely consistent vibe that shows the band trying to expand.  I came into this expecting anything from 60-80 / 100, but I'm not gonna lie, I'm in the rare came again, the Prometheus / Tauhid / Fulfillingness' First Finale / no better EDM than FSoL camp: this is better than Agent Orange.  They're doing what they can to put out another real Sodom album while trying to expand their horizons, and they largely succeed.  This album has tricks up its sleeve that I wished Agent Orange would even simply try to attempt.

At the time of writing this, I've given this album its highest rating on Metal Academy: 92/100 = 4.5 stars.

I first became aware of Teutonic thrash heavy-weights Sodom through their classic 1988 third full-length "Agent Orange" which I purchased on cassette in the very late 1980's or early 1990's & it impressed me enough to see me very rapidly purchasing the remainder of their back catalogue (also on cassette). I wouldn't say that I ever regarded them as a tier one thrash outfit but they certainly offered enough energy & menace to keep this ol' thrasher satisfied & sat comfortably at the top of my tier two bucket. The main issue for Sodom throughout the 1980's was always their ability to write freely flowing songs. They were masters of writing fantastic riffs but the song structures often sounded really jerky & pasted together to my ears which saw them lagging behind their superior local peers Kreator the majority of the time. 1990 would see Sodom releasing their fourth album & it'd be the first that I'd purchase on release (on cassette again -go figure). The better tracks had already been flogged on late-night underground metal radio programs so I was pretty pumped for what I hoped would be the record to see me finally elevate Sodom to the top tier where they belonged.

So, did they manage to do it? Well... not quite but they gave it a damn good crack. "Better Off Dead" is a beautifully conceived & composed thrash record that saw Sodom finally overcoming the song-writing challenges of the past to present some fully-developed & naturally flowing song structures. Of the twelve tracks, two are cover versions but they're both well executed & work as nice change-ups (particularly the Tank one which is really very good & suits their sound nicely). Stylistically, the majority of the record takes a familiar but highly professional German thrash direction but the band regularly change things up with not only a couple of those Motorhead-style speed metal numbers they're so good at but also a few genuine heavy metal tunes. They're damn entertaining too & easily trigger the ear worms to take control of your body for the remainder of the day to reflect on.

The highlight tracks on "Better Off Dead" are sublime. Elite thrash numbers like opener "An Eye For An Eye" & album highlight "Bloodtrails" are crushingly heavy & never fail to get my head banging but the surprise packet comes in the form of a stunningly ambitious track like "Resurrection" which is a much more controlled heavy metal number that utilizes some unique choir sections & features Motorhead's Lemmy on backing vocals. The consistency of the tracklisting is another major selling point as there's not a weak track included with only the Thin Lizzy cover of "Cold Sweat" sounding inessential. New guitarist Michael Hoffmann's bluesy Fast Eddie Clarke-inspired guitar solos fit Sodom's dirty sound like a glove too which isn't something I thought I'd be saying going in. I guess it goes without saying then that "Better Off Dead" is an essential Sodom album, isn't it? But I'll go one step further by claiming that I'm now comfortable to voice the internalized feelings I've always harbored that "Better Off Dead" was Sodom's best release to the time. Yep! I went there & I'm holding my ground too.

Better Off Dead has generally been hidden in the shadows of Sodom's previous two albums. Both Persecution Mania and Agent Orange are considered by many to be classic releases and really put these German metalheads close to the top of thrash metal in general. It was always going to be somewhat difficult to follow them up while still creating something new and fresh. While this is still obviously Sodom from start to finish, the band at least tried to add some experimentation and variety to their formula. It doesn't always work, but it's always interesting, and at times just plain great.

The more traditional thrash metal tracks on Better Off Dead are the best parts of the album. An Eye for an Eye, Shellfire Defense, Bloodtrails, Better Off Dead and Stalinorgel are all damn entertaining, typical Sodom tracks. They could easily have just created 12 tracks in this style and then the album would probably be remembered as much as the above-mentioned classics. But where would the fun be in that! Insteadm they crafted some slower, heavy tracks like The Saw is the Law and Resurrection and managed to squeeze 2 cover songs into the first half of the album, with Turn Your Head Around and Cold Sweat. It's here that Sodom's love of Motorhead and plain old heavy metal comes to the fore. While I must admit that I don't love these less-shredding sections as much, I think they make this album an interesting listen. The shifts in speed and mood make the true Sodom moments more potent. This is a neglected Sodom album and I for one think it's just a bit underrated.