Diamond Oz of Metal Underground conducted an interview with frontman Tom "Angelripper" Such of German thrash metal veterans SODOM after the band's December 6 concert at Electric Ballroom in London, England, United Kingdom during the MTV "Headbanger's Ball" tour alongside EXODUS, DEATH ANGEL and SUICIDAL ANGELS. You can watch the entire chat below. A few excerpts follow (transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET). On playing the songs live from their recent "Partisan" EP: Tom: "That was a big question — if we're going to do the new songs. Playing both of the songs with just one hour — we have to promote the new songs, we want to show the people what we're going to do next, keep the direction for the next album, whatever, so it's always hard to choose songs for a setlist for one hour. There is so much material. We want to change the setlist from time to time. I remember playing in Russia a couple of weeks ago. We played two hours, so we could put everything in. This tour is explosive with great bands, so we just have an hour. An hour is 11 songs, maybe 12." On the lyrical themes on "Partisan": Tom: "I think it's about the partisan fighters in Germany where they were fighting against the regime, against the government for their own rights, against opposition military. The whole world is getting out of control, so that's what I write down. Sometimes I wake up in the middle of the night and I write something down. I hate the situation in this world. I'm scared. I'm not scared for myself — I'm scared for the kids and the next generation. It's nothing serious. There is no message, but being a singer in the band gives you the chance to scream it out." On the status of the band's next studio album: Tom: "We'll start writing the new songs, but we have no release date confirmed with the record label. I talked to the record label. I don't want to work with all this pressure. We just start writing the songs and if the songs are arranged, we can talk about it before we start mixing and mastering or whatever. So, it could be the end of next year or beginning of 2020. I can't work with a date. If you say, 'If you want a release next year.' The record company then tells me 'Okay, we need a master in August or September.' I don't know…that's the deal. Record companies told me, 'Okay, you get your time. Start writing the songs, start writing the material and then we'll see." On whether SODOM has any plans to play shows in North America: Tom: "We have to think about a North America tour because it's a long time since we've been there. The timing has to be right. We always have problems with paperwork and working licenses, papers, shit and all that stuff. We have to find a serious promoter. That's the thing. The promoter will want to tell us we can go to North America as tourists, but we can't. If there is some metal festival around, they'll know exactly we're a band. We want have to find a serious promoter in America who is going to help us and do a good job and then we will go. It works in South America, it works in Australia, it works in Russia. It never works in America. I don't know why. We are sitting at home when we get good offers, then we off we go." Such is joined in the band's current lineup by guitarist Frank "Blackfire" Gosdzik (also formerly of KREATOR, ASSASSIN), drummer Stefan "Husky" Hüskens (ASPHYX, DESASTER) and second guitarist Yorck Segatz (BEYONDITION). Blackfire previously played with SODOM on the seminal albums "Persecution Mania", "Mortal Way Of Live" and "Agent Orange". Former SODOM guitarist Bernd "Bernemann" Kost and drummer Markus "Makka" Freiwald released a joint statement in January claiming that they were fired from the band by Tom via messaging platform WhatsApp even before Tom had a chance to hear any of the material the duo had been working on for the group's next album.
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