Obsessed by Cruelty

After In the Sign of Evil, Grave Violator handed the guitar to Michael "Destructor" Wulf, a friend from the same city block whom he recommended himself. With Tom Angelripper and Chris Witchhunter, the new trio went back to Horst Müller's studio in Berlin to make its first album, but a representative of the label heard the result and ruled that it could not be released. By Angelripper's account, the sound was not judged good enough to press. The album was recorded again in a studio in Hilpoltstein, Franconia, where Destruction had recently made Eternal Devastation, and SPV sent the band there under a strict no-alcohol rule. Rainer Hänsel produced and Bobby Bachinger engineered. Uwe Christoffers, guitarist of Darkness, came along as well: he had written "After the Deluge" in Sodom's rehearsal room and it was to be recorded as a bonus track, and since nobody was sure that Destructor would see the sessions through, Christoffers also served as a stand-by guitarist. Destructor left the band as soon as the recording was finished and joined Kreator. Steamhammer released the album in May 1986 as a twelve-track LP, SH 0040, its two sides named "Obsessed" and "Cruelty". The cover painting is by Reinhard Wieczorek, a friend of Witchhunter's. According to the band's authorized biography, it stood at number five in the sales chart of Metal Hammer's July 1986 issue. The rejected Berlin recording did not disappear: Metal Blade released it in the United States, eleven songs without "After the Deluge", and it was also the version used when the album was later paired with In the Sign of Evil on CD. Angelripper said in 2017 that the master tapes of the re-recording are lost, so that version had only ever been issued on vinyl.