Get What You Deserve

The sixth effort from German thrashers Sodom, “Get What You Deserve,” is quite easily the odd-man-out in the bands’ discography, for while it has plenty of merits on its own the fact that it appears out-of-place where it is in their collection of albums makes this one stand out all the more so.

More than perhaps any other album in their history, this one demonstrates the band’s punk-influenced leanings front-and-center for all to see, which as a whole seems to be a rather curious placement for this one in their discography. Their previous efforts had already shown the band dropped the vast punk elements that had been a part of their early sound in favor of a devastating blend of technical death/thrash with minor hints of the ferocity of black metal, with touches of punk energy being the only remaining influence found within. However, rather than keep up with that style or experiment with the sound as they had so capably shown could happen on the last record this one decides to abandon nearly all those elements in favor of what could arguably called war-punk as it’s more in feeling and tone with the original sound the band debuted with. Any and all semblance of technicality is gone as well as the lengthy, complex compositions that had become the band’s trademark, replaced instead with punk-ragers filled with simplistic, vicious and intense riffing that carries the energy and tone of the band’s past works but hardly has any of the thrashing madness they were known for. Occasionally it’ll whip itself into a frenzy with some thrash beats and riffing, but far too much of the album contains rocking punk-like riffs built on simplistic chords carried throughout the song as a whole and varying only slightly along the way. Armed with loud, pounding and simplified drumming that retains far more thrash in it due to the momentum and surprising dexterity afforded to the playing that is usually a part of their playing anyway so to see it carried over anyway is a nice connection to the past. Still, the shortened lengths for the songs are what really stick out here, with an equal running time for the whole album generated through an additional number of tracks as only three go over three minutes in length while everything else is barely two-and-a-half on average, one of which doesn’t even generate two minutes running time. This abbreviated time is a heightened example of the punk influence on the writing not allowing for a lot of really complex ideas to be integrated into the proceedings, instead getting down to business and moving on regardless of the destruction of the target that’s in total conflict to their past works where the band preferred to wait around and devastate with total authority to move on only when that total devastation was assured to have been accomplished. To have regressed in such a manner is quite curious and is overall more of a personal preference manner of attack that has nothing to do with the album as a whole. All of this practically means that there’s no real change or difference in the album from one-side to another. The halves aren’t split into changes that are drastically different, for if you found the songs good on the first half that style is repeated in the second.

There’s not a whole lot here that really sticks out in terms of the individual songs as this one tends to be pretty straightforward how it goes about its business. The opening title track features strong drumming with plenty of vicious riffing, steel-faced punk-like attitude and energy with thrash riffing around the solo before a return to hybrid punk-like riffing to start this off nicely. The somewhat-bizarre ‘Jabba the Hut’ features screaming schizophrenic riffing and blasting drumming that keeps the energy going strong in a blazing punk-rocker without too many thrash influences. That’s rectified in the shorter-but-vicious ‘Jesus Screamer,’ which goes through a blasting intro with pounding drumming, totally chaotic riffing and actually manages to mix the punk and thrash quite nicely with slightly more technical riffing than before and with pure thrash vocals in its devastating, tight package, emerging as one of the album’s highlights. ‘Delight in Slaying’ features simple riffing in a straight-forward, frenetic-paced rager with blasting drumming at vicious speeds and minor tempo changes for a somewhat thrash-like feel that gets the closest to the band’s classic sound as the record gets. One of the few experimental tracks here is the simple, rocking ‘Die stumme Ursel,’ which stays a punk-filled mid-tempo rager with simplified performances, constant pace with thunderous drumming and a schlager-esque feel due to the simplified chorus begging for a sing-a-long that gets as close as the band comes to such a tactic in their writing and remains one of the stand-out songs for such a feel. ‘Freaks of Nature’ is another blasting thrasher built around vicious riffing with more traditional thrash elements, especially in the bass-work, and haunting atmosphere around the backing vocals that retain a violent, intense vibe for another stand-out song. Changing things up is ‘Eat Me,’ with its simple, punk-drumming intro with restrained, mid-tempo riffing and pace that adapts thrash-like pacing around the minor solos and remains in consistent gear for the majority of its duration. The raging ‘Unbury the Hatchet’ returns to more rocking punk-like riffing with plenty of intense drumming, punk riff-work that still moves along at a high-speed and packs tons of energy in a quick pace, ending the first half on a positive note.

The second half is pretty much the same as it was the first time around and features many stylistically similar tracks overall. ‘Into Perdition’ starts this half of the album with dark, intense riffing with pounding drums, brutal vocals and a steady, vicious pace with sporadic moments of chaotic razor-wire riffs off-set by continuous blasting pace, pretty much what was given to us initially. The album’s most brutal track, ‘Sodomized,’ is a vicious monster with thrash-like riffing and intense drumming keeping a steady pace as the vicious riffs lend it a chaotic vibe amidst the simplistic thrashing and energy-fueled performances, generating another stand-out. ‘Fellows in Misery’ has another standard energetic thrash intro with traditional riff-work and thrashing drums to off-set the chaotic vibe and blasting tempo that keeps the whole affair rather frantic and intense. The usual experimental track, ‘Tribute to Moby Dick’ is a bizarre instrumental that retains an epic feeling with slow-building doom-esque riffing, restrained drumming and whale singing over the top of an attempted intense series of riffs that falls short with its placement on the album. Following that is another misstep in ‘Silence Is Consent,’ as its feedback-riddled intro with blazing drums, simplistic riffing and plenty of energy that just feels like a carbon copy of the other tracks without the urgency or intensity that littered those tracks. The rousing ‘Erwachet!’ features a load of high-energy punk-like drumming with splendid energy, chaotic riffing and frantic vibe in a short package that really gets itself over quite nicely. This is repeated in ‘Gomorrah,’ as the chaotic energetic riffing with punk-drumming display, urgent razor-wire riffing with a barnburner off-the-rails feel, dirty vocals and driving intensity generates an impressive feel overall and creates another album highlight. Things end on a high-note with the cover of Venom’s ‘Angel Dust,’ a raging mid-tempo rocker with plenty of pounding drumming, simplistic riffing that feels in spirit of the original and comes faithfully close in most respects as it’s in keeping with the feel and flow of the bands’ original tracks on the album and ends up closing the album nicely.

Frankly, this is one of the most confusing efforts in their whole discography, offering plenty of elements that should make it work on its own there’s just the innate feeling that something is missing. More than likely it’s due to this album appearing at the wrong placement in the release order of their albums as this tends to present far more closely-conceptual releases to the first album rather than the technically-proficient death/thrash that had been the focus of their previous record and therefore feels like it should be placed in line with that release. It’s more of a regression than a progression where it’s placed now, and that may turn off some expecting another round after such an impressive outing the last time around, despite the fact that under most circumstances this is still an overall solid album, which is filled with passionate performances, devastating songs and a total blast of energy overall that makes several songs quite infectious. As it stands, though, this one is rather more for the bands’ fans than just general thrash fans like the majority of their material.