Review by Rexorcist 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.