The Arsonist

The Arsonist was Sodom's first studio album since Genesis XIX in 2020, made by Tom Angelripper on vocals and bass, Frank Blackfire and Yorck Segatz on guitars and Toni Merkel on drums. Its defining choice was the drum sound. Angelripper had seen a tape machine and a large analogue desk at a studio run by a friend of Merkel's, and the drums were recorded entirely on 24-track tape, every track given over to the kit, and Merkel was warned that he would have just one chance once the tape was running. No studio tricks or digital corrections were applied to them. Angelripper admitted that the effort and the cost were higher, but said the difference from today's usual drum productions was enormous and had lifted every other instrument as well. All four members wrote for the album. In Angelripper's account, Blackfire brought the riffs and hooks Sodom are known for, Segatz leaned towards more epic songwriting, and Merkel, a capable guitarist as well, contributed a number of songs and widened the record's range. "Witchhunter" pays homage to the band's late former drummer Chris Witchhunter, and its video was made by the former Sodom guitarist Andy Brings. "Trigger Discipline", the first single and the heaviest song on the album, is about a sniper who has lost control of his actions and shoots people at random. The Polish artist Zbigniew M. Bielak, whose work includes artwork for Ghost and Mayhem, created the cover, and Eroc mastered the album. Marquee released the album in Japan first, on 25 June 2025, as a single CD and as a limited two-CD edition whose second disc holds the five songs of the 2023 EP 1982, with a separate booklet. Steamhammer/SPV released it worldwide two days later, on 27 June. It entered the German album chart at number 4 on 4 July and stayed for two weeks; only the 2024 reissue of Tapping the Vein, at number 3, has placed a Sodom album higher there.