This DVD tells the history of German thrash metal band Sodom from the beginning, 1982 (actually, from much earlier times way before the band), to 1995. The rest of the story will be told on part 2. If you don't know Sodom, you must be a newcomer to the realms of metal music, as they are one of the big three of German thrash bands, beside Kreator and Destruction. The second disc includes live stuff and early video clips etc.

The history DVD goes deep! Its duration is three hours and a quarter. Telling about the Sodom main man Tom Angelripper's home town Gelschenkirchen and its mine working community where Tom himself is driven to work prior to creating Sodom, one might think it's way too deep, but no, everything is surprisingly interesting. Of course it's Tom who is heard most here, but ex-band members, managers, roadies, guys from other bands, even Tom's old miner working pals are interviewed. There's quite emotional bursts seen, both good and bad. The interviews are accompanied by old interviews, live clips, TV appearances and other video material gathered along the years. Every year is separated to its own chapter, making it as clear as possible for a viewer to follow the thing. Subtitles are available in English and German only, and at times they are a bit too fast to be read. Anyway, I'm not a big fan of the band, I'm still in the middle of getting my Sodom discography full, but for the big part this is interesting thing to watch. And a very good historical document, actually the best together with Iron Maiden's huge 'The History of Iron Maiden, Pt. 1: The Early Days' from 2004.

The live disc collects recordings shot in the different parts of the world along the 'M-16' (2001) album touring plus three video clips and the 'Verlierer' movie trailer with a Sodom song. Live part is fantastic, but maybe those who attended to these shows or hardcore Sodomites don't like this style of mixing various gigs together (there's also some "mixclips" that mix different places together during one song). The live set consists of 22 songs, 2 of them being covers. It's not a surprise, that one is a Motörhead song, and the other is a "Sodom" hit of old pop song 'Aber Bitte mit Sahne'. Sodom material covers their whole career up to 2001. All gigs are pro-shot with many cameras with many interesting viewpoints granted, and the sound is in-your-face all the time. None of the gigs is a small one, but they're played in bigger venues or festivals. But we'll get to see some insane moshpit action anyway! Speaking of moshpits, it's Sofia, Bulgaria, 2004 gig that steal the show with 11 whole songs from that concert (other festivals featured are With Full Force 2003, Wacken Open Air 2001 and Rock Hard Festival 2003, but also short pieces from along the way around the road). There's some interludes every now and then with the band & crew travelling, meeting fans and such antics, but expect no boozing which is a bit surprising nowadays, ha ha. Videos are taken from TV I guess, and on 'Die Stumme Ursel' there's the band explaining the song's meaning in the middle of the video! So the quality isn't top, but it's good to have these clips here. Total duration of the 2nd disc is 100 minutes.

I think technical quality of these DVDs is good. Well, I'm not a hi-fi freak, so I can cope with stereo sound. There's 5.1 Dolby surround mix available, too. Informative booklets are good extra. 'History of Depravity' booklet collects short history of the band and their releases during the era the DVD covers and 'Live of Depravity' booklet includes short stories about the gigs.

As it's German stuff, you know it's best enjoyed with cold beer! The only thing I don't like about this DVD is that it only covers years 1982-1995, otherwise I have to say this is superb. Great stuff for a newbie like me, and I really can't even imagine how old Sodomaniax like this. This must be their heaven! This must be picked up by all thrashers, but also those who want to know something about on the the metal music legends. The document part might not stand multiple viewings (surely watching this again next year), but the live part surely does. Great work!

Rating: 9 (out of 10) ratings explained

Reviewed by Lane
09/17/2007 21:33