Customer Reviews

Agent Orange

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

So why did you start listening to heavy metal? The rebellion factor? Iron Maiden's cool covers? Hearing Black Sabbath from someone older? Seeing Bros on telly in the late 1980s and thinking "This is awful"?

For me, it was the sheer childish pleasure of head banging, playing air guitar, and pretending to be Steve Harris. Metal looked and sounded like fun, so I tried it, and more than 15 years later, I'm still hooked. During that time, Sodom has given me a lot of pleasure (don't take that the wrong way!) and has caused me many a whiplashed neck from frenzied headbanging. Agent Orange is an album to slip on when no one is around, put away all breakable things in the room, pick up a tennis racket, and just let rip!

Sodom were never a band to let technicality to get in the way of a good song. Equal parts Venom and Motorhead, this is thrash metal at it's most basic, and most effective. Like those two legendary noisy three piece bands, the trio of musicians in Sodom may not be the best in their field, but working on Motorhead's "Sod it, it's only rock and roll" theory, produced some of the most ungodly thrash noise ever to make it to record. At one time, Sodom were one of the most extreme bands in the world, even being labelled "death metal" back in the mid 1980s!

It's hard to believe Sodom had slowed down for this album. Listen to songs like "Ausgebombt" booming out of your stereo and you'll hear a simple repetitive bass line, fairly basic piledriver drumming, catchy riffs, and Tom Angelripper's Teutonic shout over it all. It's not particularly tight in places, almost verging on falling apart during a few of the solos, but fuss is kept to a minimum. There are even punk rock shout-along choruses here. There's the odd solo thrown in, but you'll not find a self-indulgent fiddle-fest. Bands today who don't use solos should take note- you don't have to be Yngwie Malmsteen to play a good solo.

The title track, "Remember The Fallen" and Ausgebombt" are the pick of the bunch here, although that said, there are really no dud tracks on this album. When this was released in 1989, Sodom were moving away from the anti-Christian sentiments of earlier releases, having found a deeper vein of inspiration in railing against the stupidity of war. One track which is just a little disturbing however, is "Incest". Apparently Angelripper fancied his own sister...

"Agent Orange" has all the ingredients a good thrash album needs. Days later, the pounding songs will still be echoing in your subconscious, and you will be flicking Devil horns at everyone you meet. Remember the fallen!

This is an oldie but a goodie. Back in the day Sodom were it when it came to thrash. Lots of people considered their sound a cross between Slayer and (old) Metallica and yes that may be a good assumption but Agent Orange is definitly a classic thrash metal album. Perescution Mania IMHO is their best but Agent Orange comes in second. If you want to be educated in where thrash came from definitly pick this one up. I highly suggest you pick up Perescution Mania or better yet Mortal Way of Live which includes all the best Sodom songs played in a live setting in 1988. Trust me, when you listen to Mortal way of Live you can feel the energy they gave off. The only song that disturbs me is "Incest" Online there were rumors that Angelripper wanted his own sis. Yikes. Why sing about it!? Could just be a rumor back in the day.

Again, this is classic. I recommend three classic Sodom CDs which include this one, Perescution Mania, and Mortal way of Live.

When I first started listening to metal, one of the bands that I was warned to stay away from was the German thrash trio Sodom. I was told that their music was too impossibly fast and extreme to be even mildly comprehensible. The first thing I did, of course, was listen to the first Sodom album I could find, which was 1989's "Agent Orange." In all fairness, I think the individual who warned me against Sodom was referring to the band's earlier works such as "In The Sign of Evil" and "Obsessed by Cruelty," since "Agent Orange" represents something of an aesthetic refinement of the German thrash movement that Sodom helped to create; the music is still fast enough to tear your face off, but the overall emphasis seems to have shifted from speed to fullness of sound as evidenced by a greater role for the bass and a reliance on powerchords in lieu of quickly jumping from one fret to another with insane tremolo picking (not to mention improved production values).

"Agent Orange" begins with the title track, which is one of Sodom's best songs as well as a thrash classic in its own right. In some superficial respects, it resembles the more commercialized style of mid-1980s speed metal (as exemplified by albums such as "Master of Puppets") with few of the same neoclassical pretensions of that era. The result is a simpler, more streamlined metal sound that is ironically less accessible than its American and British forebearers. The frentic thrash tempo only increases after the title track, moving into the panicked "Tired and Red" and the sexually inappropriate "Incest." The epic thrash ballad "Remember the Fallen" (also a classic track) slows things down a bit but the pace afterward is relentless with "Magic Dragon" and "Ausgebombt" being the highlights of the second half of the album. Tom Angelripper's gnarled voice is the perfect complement to the hellishly fast proceedings on "Agent Orange," riding above the music like a tactical bombing raid and more than slightly resembling Lemmy Kilmister of Motörhead. The theme of the Vietnam War introduced on "Agent Orange" would be revisited on Sodom's 2001 album "M-16," although "Agent Orange" is the superior album in just about every way. This is an essential thrash album that no metal fan ought to be without.

This my third Sodom album and once again they BLEW ME AWAY! Inside the CD sleeve are written the words "This album is dedicated to all pepole-soldiers and civilians-whom died by senseless aggressions of wars all over the world". That says it all folks!

Agent Orange is not only one of the worst attack methods used in the Vietnam war, but also an imprint in the later 80's metal scene.

The 80's heavy metal scene had its share of less-known bands, and Sodom was one of them. "Agent Orange" is basically a thrasher's paradise. Much like Kreator and Destruction, Sodom is a band that plays head-on thrash metal from the country that basically screwed the Jewish community over during WWII. Angelripper is an agressive vocalist whose style fits the music well. Guitar work is great. Just pure thrash that fits the style of early Metallica and Exodus well.

If you love thrash, you need this album. Some of the most raw music that you'll ever hear is on this album.

Many accuse Agent Orange of being dangerously near commercial territory... please send me what you're smoking, because this album is every bit as heavy as Persecution Mania and Obsessed by Cruelty, with more focus on coming up with killer riffs. Agent Orange thrashes from start to finish, containing some of Sodom's best songs "Ausgebombt", "Incest" and "Exhibition Bout" to name a few.

Along with Kreator's Terrible Certainty and Destruction's Eternal Devastation, this is one of Germany's finest thrash records to ever exist. If you claim to be a fan of 80s thrash/speed this should grace your collection by all means.

The best Sodom record!!! fast and ugly just like pure 80's trash used to be!

Along with KREATOR, DESTRUCTION, HELLOWEEN and MORDRED redefined the true power of greman speed/trash metal!

uncle tom and the rest of the band came back even stronger with this album, a progression upon "Persecution Mania", which is almost hard to believe considering that album was near perfect Teutonic thrash. frank blackfire is a thrash breakdown riff master, and every one of the songs on here has a break section in which he elicits some nasty chugging and soloing. Angelripper's vox are in top form, scratchy and deep at the same time. the title track is a classic, and so are "Tired and Red" and "Remember the Fallen." the only mis-step is the last cut, "Don't Walk Away" which is not a crappy song, but it just doesn't fit with the rest of the war and death theme of the recording. Highly recommended.

Agent Orange by Sodom is one of those must-have thrash metal albums that you'll always find in countdowns and lists of top 100 metal albums and top 20 thrash albums etc alongside the likes of Beneath The Remains, Extreme Aggression and Forbidden Evil.

Released in 1989, the German thrash band's third full length album was a breakthrough moment that raised their profile, shifted a lot of units and earned the band a lasting respect. Earlier Sodom albums and EPs had been very noisy, harsh and extreme and became very influential for black and death metal artists much like the earliest Sepultura and Kreator records.

Agent Orange found the band unleashing their full potential as songwriters and as musicians, song lengths extended, acoustic sections got introduced, guitar solos came more frequently and more impressively, structures got more complex and the album as a whole just has a grand and important feel like all the very best thrash albums do. All of this happened in conjunction with a notably better production job resulting in a stunning album all around.

Another thing in its favour is that Agent Orange isn't all just mindless thumping, and intense speeds with no respite. The band make the faster sections good by use of contrast; Sodom play a mixture of tempos here, using chugging sections and even occasional grooves and sudden tempo shifts to brake up the monotony, making for a very strong listen that doesn't get old on repeat listens.

Standout tracks include the amazing title track `Agent Orange,' as well as the slower `Remember The Fallen,' and the furious `Tired And Red.'

Sometimes you will read that Agent Orange is a bad album, but that is almost always from the perspective of people who prefer really extreme music, raw production and the like. If you aren't just an elitist and are a fan of well composed and interesting thrash metal trust that Argent Orange deserves its reputation on all those top metal album countdowns and lives up to the hype.

In summary; If you are a fan of thrash metal I would strongly recommend this album, doubly so if you like late eighties work of Kreator, Destruction or Sepultura. If you are a fan of Sodom already you absolutely must check it out.

The inspiration behind this epic album is amazing, the songs are killer, the lyrics excellent and the riffs vicious. Truly one of the best ever made.