The latest CD from legendary German thrashers Sodom is In War And Pieces. After nearly 30 years, the band is still going strong. I spoke with vocalist/bassist Tom Angelripper about the new CD and their experience with producer Waldemar Sorychta, their recent career-spanning DVDs, the possibility of a Big 3 of German thrash tour and other subjects.

Chad Bowar: You recently made a lineup change and have a new drummer. How did that come about?
Tom Angelripper: Bobby (Schottkowski) left the band because of some personal problems.

The new drummer (Makka Freiwald) is a friend of mine. He played in Despair and Voodoo Cult. He also played in Kreator when Ventor left the band in the '90s. He's a very good drummer, a good guy, a good friend of ours.

Waldemar Sorychta (Grip, Inc., Enemy Of The Sun) produced your latest CD In War And Pieces. How did you decide to work with him?
I met Waldemar at the Rock Hard festival in Germany. We talked about the new Sodom album and he said he was very interested in producing a thrash metal band. He's a very good musician and producer and has produced a lot of other bands. It was very important for us to spend the money to get a producer rather than renting a studio, doing it ourselves and having to get it done in two weeks. Waldemar said we could record until everyone was satisfied at his studio.

It was amazing. He's the best producer we ever had. We did pre-production so he could learn more about the songs. It was fantastic.

Did he give a lot of input as far as changing or tweaking the material?
He had so many good ideas.

He helped us arrange the songs, putting a chorus here or a guitar solo there. He had a lot of input into the songs. I was so satisfied with it. When I did the vocals he told me to sing in different ways. That way when he was mixing it he could choose what he wanted for the best results. For me it was important to get a better sound. I want to have the guitars closer to the ears, I want to have more aggressive vocals. We haven't changed our sound, but we have a better production.

What sort of lyrical topics do you tackle on this album?
There is so much in the world to write about. In watching the news or reading the newspaper there are so many bad things happening. I think a thrash band has to write about these bad things. Sometimes I wake up in the night and write down ideas for lyrics. But we cannot change anything. We can just describe how bad things like wars can be. I want to write lyrics about life. My dream is to live in a peaceful world. I can't change things, but I can write things down and scream about it on stage.

The album has been out in Europe for a little while. How has the response there been?
It's fantastic. We got so many good reviews from magazines. People like it. It's important to me what the fans like. You don't want to leave the fans disappointed about a new Sodom album. Some reviewers are saying it's the best Sodom album ever. Some compare it to Agent Orange, which I don't. I never compare albums. We are satisfied and the record company is satisfied. SPV is a new label nowadays. A lot of bands went to other companies, and we want to give them a chance. Sodom is the biggest band on SPV now and we get more promo activity.

What are your U.S. expectations?
I hope that American fans like it. My dream is to tour in America. We never got a real chance. The last time we were supposed to go we had problems with visas and papers. We will try this year to do a U.S. tour.

You're doing the 70,000 tons of metal cruise. Have you ever played on a ship before?
Yes, we played a smaller ship in Scandinavia. This one is a big ship. It will be the first show with our new drummer, and we're looking forward to it. We'll be on the ship for 4 or 5 days, so it's also sort of a vacation for us. We can relax a little bit and hang out with other bands. I'm a metal fan and look forward to seeing other bands.

When you're touring, is it tough to put together a setlist?
Yes, it's a problem. Now we'll do three or four from the new album. We also have the all-time classics we have to do, and put some rarities in the setlist as well. There are always songs we can't play, but what can we do? We try to choose a good setlist for everyone. It's a hard thing to do.

Last year you released the Lords Of Depravity II DVD, which is an extensive history of the band. How much work was it putting that together?
It was a lot of work. I had to make phone calls to ex-members, get photos. etc. We had so much video to watch and decide what to use for the DVD. It was hard work. It took half a year to produce everything. I wish that more bands would do this kind of documentary. I am so glad we were able to finish both parts in three years.

Was it difficult to track down some of those former members?
Yes. It was a problem to get Chris Witchhunter, because he was still pissed off that I kicked him out of the band in 1992. He said if we gave him some money he'd do the interview for the DVD. So I gave him 500 Euros for a 20 minute interview. I was so glad he did it, because he was one of the first members, one of the most important ex-members. (Witchhunter passed away in 2008). Getting those interviews with ex-members was an important part of the DVD, and made it much more interesting.

Will Sodom still be going in 10 or 15 years to be able to make a third DVD?
I don't know. I can't stop collecting stuff. When we're doing shows I always have my camcorder going and save everything. But to do a third one would take something special. I'm just looking forward to getting the new album out and touring. We'll see what happens.

The Big 4 of U.S. thrash metal toured last year in Europe. When was the last time the Big 3 of German thrash (Sodom, Kreator, Destruction) toured together?
We played in 2000 and 2001. It was a big tour. I always talk about this with Schmier with Destruction and Mille from Kreator. The problem isn't with the bands, it's that we're all on different labels, different companies and booking agents who all follow their own interests. Coordinating schedules is difficult as well. It's definitely a dream. We don't need to go for six weeks, just a couple of shows in Europe, North America, South America, wherever. We're all getting older. We need to do it now.

How did you get started in music?
We started the band in 1982. The only one who played an instrument was Chris Witchhunter. Aggressor said he wanted to play guitar, so I had to play the bass. I had never played bass. I went to the store, bought a cheap bass guitar and we started jamming. About a year later we did the first demo Witching Metal. We were so inspired by Venom, the old Motorhead stuff. We wanted to get heavier than Venom, faster than Metallica. That was our aim. We never gave up.

How long did it take you to feel comfortable as a bassist?
At least a couple of years. The first couple of shows were awful. By 1986 when we played the Obsessed By Cruelty tour I felt comfortable. I could play the bass guitar, I could sing and not forget the lyrics. It takes years to learn an instrument, but at least we could play our songs.