Thomas “Angelripper” Such has been going strong with Sodom for over 40 years at this point, and now he’s looking to slow things down. Or at least slow things down on the touring side, anyway.
In a new interview with Ghost Cult Magazine, Angelripper explains that the slowdown is a combination of health issues and wanting to focus more on both Sodom‘s back catalog (which he’s been doing) and upcoming new material. All of which falls by the wayside when a tour crops up.
“I wanna slow down everything in next year. I don’t wanna stop with the band, but I wanna slow down a little bit,” said Angelripper “It’s like Tom Araya — I need more time for my family, I need more time for my hunting and I need more time for my friends and I need more time for myself. So I have to slow down a little bit.
“I need a break, because after the pandemic, we did so many shows and we did so many things because I’m busy every day with the stuff. I’m working 12 [hours] a [day], maybe more. I get some health issues — I get the same, like Tom Araya, with my spine, with my neck, my ears, my eyes. I have to fix it. But I need more time. But if you’re on the road every day and all the time, you can do nothing. So we’ll see what happens. We wanna wait for the new album and wanna wait for the reaction. And we’ll see what happens.”
He continued: “If I [don’t] have so much shows in the next year, I have more time for the back catalog, I have more time for the new album, I have more time for this, for that. I never stopped doing my job and I never stopped doing my work, but I can’t tour so much next year. That is a problem, because you have one show or two shows in South America and you are on tour for 10 days. You waste time on airports, on hotels, on soundchecks, whatever. I need to take care of my time. I need to take care of myself.”
On the studio output front, Sodom has been killing it in recent years. The band put out their full-length Genesis XIX in 2020, an EP called Bombenhagel in 2021, and then re-recordings of one song from every album on their 2022 compilation 40 Years at War – The Greatest Hell of Sodom…. followed by the 1982 EP in 2023.
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