Sodom - Agent Orange
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Happy 20th birthday, Agent Orange. Evidently, it is the best-selling German thrash record ever. In Germany alone, it shifted over 100,000 copies. 99% of metal albums now don’t put up those kinds of numbers worldwide! Agent Orange‘s secret weapon was guitarist Frank Blackfire. He made it and its predecessor Persecution Mania unstoppable thrashing machines. (In this interview, he says he wrote most of the music.) For Sodom, everyone rates In the Sign of Evil, but I prefer Blackfire’s machine gun of a picking hand. (He then contributed its attack to Kreator’s Coma of Souls.) Plus, Agent Orange has bad-ass artwork by Andreas Marschall with Knarrenheinz, my favorite metal mascot next to Motörhead’s Snaggletooth. Harris Johns’ production is also killer. The record’s anti-war sentiment is still too relevant: “This album is dedicated to all people – soldiers and civilians – who died by senseless aggressions of wars all over the world.” Long live Agent Orange, rest in peace Chris Witchhunter.
