Sodom: The Official Authorized Biography will be released this summer

Decibel Books proudly presents “Sodom: The Official Authorized Biography,” the fully authorized biography of the German thrash legends Sodom, finally translated into English.

Fans can pre-order their copy now here: tinyurl.com/sodombook

“Sodom: The Official Authorized Biography,” Dr. Holger Schmenk visits the deepest basement rehearsal rooms and scours the roughest pubs to unearth the unfiltered truth about Tom Angelripper and his ever-changing lineup of bandmates. From their wild early days of the “Witching Metal” demo to their international breakthrough with “Agent Orange,” and right up to the present day—Schmenk tells the unvarnished story of a thrash metal legend that has gone through more guitarists than other bands have gone through amplifiers.

“Sodom: The Official Authorized Biography” tells the story of a miner’s son from Gelsenkirchen-Buer who rose from being a blue-collar underground laborer to an internationally acclaimed metal star, without ever forgetting his roots or compromising his integrity. Navigating four decades of metal history, “Sodom: The Official Authorized Biography” features interviews with nearly every past and present member of the band along with a supporting cast of the German thrash metal scene. Packed with over 200 rare and previously unreleased photos, this hardcover cover history is over 300, beautifully designed pages fully translated to English.

Read an excerpt now at www.decibelmagazine.com which turns the clock back to 1984 and the recording of the band’s landmark “In the Sign of Evil” EP.

German thrash metal band Sodom was founded in 1982 and is based in Gelsenkirchen. The sole constant in their lineup was bassist/vocalist Tom Angelripper, who underwent numerous lineup changes. Angelripper, guitarist Frank “Blackfire” Gosdzik (who played with Sodom from 1987 to 1989 and returned in 2018), drummer Toni Merkel, and Yorck Segatz make up the current lineup. Along with Kreator, Destruction, and Tankard, Sodom has been dubbed one of the “Big Four” of Teutonic thrash metal. Sodom is considered a pioneer of death metal and had a significant impact on the German black metal movement. Known as the most Venom-blackened of the German “Three Kings” (the other two being Destruction and Kreator), Sodom further combined death metal and thrash into a “wicked and decadent sound.”