In War and Pieces

In War and Pieces was released by Steamhammer/SPV in Germany on 19 November 2010, with the rest of Europe following on 22 November and North America on 11 January 2011. Tom Angelripper on bass and vocals, Bernemann on guitar and Bobby Schottkowski on drums made it with a producer new to the band, Waldemar Sorychta of Grip Inc., whose earlier work includes records by Tiamat, Moonspell, Lacuna Coil and Sentenced. Tom Angelripper compared him to a fourth member of the band and said he had asked for an album that went back to Sodom's roots and had an old sound. The work was under way in August 2010 and was reported finished on 26 August. The credits place the recording at Waldstreet Sound and the mix at Flying Pigs Studio. There are eleven songs. In the press text that announced it, the album takes aim at power that has gone too far, with greed, corruption, fanaticism and oppression among its subjects, and Tom Angelripper pointed to passages that recall Persecution Mania and Agent Orange. "Knarrenheinz", sung in German, stands in the line of "Bombenhagel" and "Ausgebombt" and is named after the mascot on the cover, which was designed by Eliran Kantor, known for his work for Testament, Gwar and Mekong Delta. The lyrics are credited to Tom Angelripper and Nadja Herten, and the music to Sodom. That November the German Metal Hammer magazine came with an exclusive Sodom CD carrying three of the new songs, the title track among them. Besides the standard CD, the album appeared as a two-disc digipak with a 16-page booklet and a bonus CD of ten songs recorded live at Wacken Open Air in 2007, and as a red double LP with the bonus track "Murder One". It spent one week on the German album chart, at number 64. The Japanese edition, issued by NEXUS on 6 April 2011, also adds "Murder One". In November 2010 the band parted ways with Schottkowski, and in December it announced Markus "Makka" Freiwald as its new drummer, which makes this the last Sodom album with Schottkowski on drums.