Review by Daniel for Sodom - M-16 (2001)

German thrash metal heavy-weights Sodom played a pretty major role in my formative years. I believe I first discovered them through the video clip for their 1989 single “Ausgebombt” which was shown on a late-night music video TV show & prompted me to pick up the “Agent Orange” album on cassette. I proceeded to play the absolute shit out of it which resulted in me exploring the rest of Sodom’s back catalogue fairly quickly afterwards. What I found was that there is a definite line that can be drawn between the more recent material that I really enjoyed (1987’s “Persecution Mania” sophomore album & “Expurse of Sodomy” E.P.) & Sodom’s rawer & more primitive earlier work (their two early demos, 1985’s “In The Sign of Evil” E.P. & 1986’s “Obsessed by Cruelty” debut album). I’ve never really gotten on with Sodom’s early works to be honest. As a musician myself, I feel that I’m too consistently distracted by the awful (or lack of) musicianship which makes the whole package feel like I’m listening to a bunch of twelve year-olds. But there can be no denying the quality of Sodom’s late 80’s classics & they really did secure my attention for each successive Sodom release until I’d drift away from the scene in the late 1990’s. Upon returning to metal in 2009 I would quickly discover that Sodom’s 2001 tenth full-length was being held up as a major resurrection of the band’s past glories with some claiming it as their best record overall. That idea had the teenage thrasher in me salivating so I went in head-first; ready, willing & able to be blown away. Needless to say that I was left a little disappointed by that experience. I recall finding “M-16” to be quite enjoyable but didn’t see it as anything terribly special so I haven’t returned to “M-16” since. I’ve often wondered if my expectations were simply too high which led me to be a little harsh on Sodom there though so this month’s feature release nomination has given me a good opportunity to review my position with more of an open mind.

Upon first listen, “M-16” is undeniably a Sodom record. The war themes they’ve so regularly targeted are all over the cover art, lyrics & general atmosphere while band leader Tom Angelripper is undeniable in his commitment to the cause. Tom’s backed by two former members of German power/heavy metal band Crows in guitarist Bernemann & drummer Bobby Schottkowski (currently with English NWOBHM stalwarts Tank), both of whom had been with the band since 1997’s “Til Death Do Us Unite” album, & the trio have produced a meat-&-potatoes style of thrash metal record that ticks most of the boxes that the band’s passionate fanbase look for in a Sodom release. The album is well produced & performed but I’m not sure that there’s anything especially noteworthy in the packaging which leaves the song-writing with the task of capturing the listener’s imagination. So, the big question is does it manage to do that? Well, I think the answer is yes & no for me personally but that’s clearly not the case for others.

You see, “M-16” is an inconsistent record in my opinion. There are certainly more hits than misses but the highlights never reach the heights of Sodom’s past glories. A lot of the album is enjoyable enough on the surface but is lacking in the edge that made the band famous to begin with. Guitarist Bernemann’s lead guitar contribution is a prime example in that there’s nothing wrong with his solos. They’re actually quite serviceable to be honest but none of them really stands out or adds to the songs so they tend to drift past without me even noticing them a lot of the time. Sodom have always been best when they drop the shackles & go for broke & that’s still the case here but those moments are not regular enough for “M-16” to be the classic record it’s hyped up to be. A lot of people seem to love Sodom’s slower war anthems but they can often sound a bit clunky to me. Take the very popular “Napalm In The Morning” for example. It’s basically built around a riff that’s essentially a minor variation on one that Bathory came up with in the late 1980’s & that’s about all there is to say about it really. It’s overly simple & lacks sophistication, instead relying on the lyrical themes & the link to “Apocalypse Now” to capture the listener’s interest. Admittedly it seems to have achieved that task too but I need a bit more in my thrash metal than that. Other tracks fair a little worse than that too with the chorus hooks from both “Little Boy” & “Marines” coming across as particularly dumb. And then we have the closing surf rock cover song “Surfin’ Bird”… what the fuck were they thinking with that one then, eh?

Look, I’m certainly sounding a little more critical than I would like to here because the song structures are noticeably more tight & cohesive than they were during the band's 1980's hey day & the tracklisting still has plenty to offer your average Kreator, Slayer & Destruction nut. “Genocide” & “Lead Injection” are both prime examples of that while you’ll find four or five others that are more than serviceable examples of the Sodom formula too. I guess it just frustrates me that a record like “M-16” can be placed up on such a pedestal. While I certainly enjoy it a lot more than Sodom’s 1982-1986 releases, I can’t say that it ever comes close to touching those 1987-1989 classics. In fact, I’d suggest that if this was the debut album from a brand new band then you’d likely never hear about it & the band in question would quickly drift off into the vast canyon of acts that didn't manage to differentiate themselves from the pack. It’s nothing more than a reasonably enjoyable (if inessential) Sodom record & I struggle to see why it’s regarded more highly than some of their other releases. I can only assume it’s for similar reasons to why some of the later Kreator & Exodus records were overrated i.e. they saw the bands returning to a reasonable level of form after a creative slump & were subsequently overhyped as a result.