All the angels bowed before God—except for one. He turned his back and was not destroyed, but punished. Banished to the seventh layer of Earth. And years later… in Germany, a child named Thomas emerged from the dark mines after endless days of digging—and everything had changed. The Devil was back on Earth… ready to leave his mark on evil.
This evil was unleashed through a cursed form of music so unholy that Cronos took this child under his wing. Screaming “Sodom” four millennia after the fall, this child—just four years later—would echo that name. He broke the gates of Hell and cried out “Witching Metal,” “Sinner,” “Spreading Evil,” and “Voice from the Grave.”
With a filthy, sinful sound and lyrics dripping with hatred, this EP reached the pinnacle of evil. Demonic vocals, high-speed destructive drums, and razor-sharp, chainsaw-like guitars came together to create one of the loudest, most satanic, and hellish recordings of its time. The unique fusion of old-school Thrash and early Black Metal had finally emerged. Chris Witchhunter’s pounding drums, Violator’s raw and high-speed riffs, and Tom’s deathly screams—sometimes demonic, sometimes as if rising from the pit of Hell—echoed with reverb that defined the raw spirit of the EP. Despite Witchhunter’s primitive playing, his tight double bass work and chemistry with the vocals and guitars proved him a drummer with soul.
Musically, it can be described as a collision of Motörhead, Raven, and Tank’s filth and noise, fused with Venom’s satanism and the aggressive spirit of Punk.
As for the album cover—imagine a bloodthirsty executioner just before striking his victim with a sword. That hateful stare tells you everything you need to know about the record.
From the very first second, Tom’s feral growls follow abrasive guitars and are met with apocalyptic drums and a piercing buzz. Then comes the hammer blow: “It’s time to die!” High-tempo drums, a relentless atmosphere, tortured cries of Jesus, and fallen angels overwhelm you for four unrelenting minutes. Evil digs into your bones. Tom’s vocal tone across the entire EP clearly reflects the influence of Cronos.
When Jesus returns to Earth and the dead rise to follow him, the second track begins with haunting screams and launches into Chris’s straightforward yet effective drum solo. Despite being slower in tempo than the other songs, the lyrics and Tom’s vocals bring a unique depth. The structure of this song would later inspire bands like Voivod and Sarcófago. With crushing transitions and Lemmy-style bass lines, the track continuously shifts tempo, preparing you for the next sin: "Blasphemer."
Blasphemer… What an entrance—grinding, crushing, pulverizing guitars that rip your mind apart. Tom greets us with a filthy, depraved, perverse laugh—surely the laugh of the Devil himself. And then the blasphemy begins:
“Black Metal is a game I played.
No one ever showed me the way.
I’m a bloody anti-Christian,
I only believe in evil.
I denied the church,
And I possess sin.
SINNER!!!”
Tom spews his hatred, continuing:
“I turned the cross upside down,
Read the Devil’s book out loud,
I begin to live after midnight,
I masturbate thinking of angels.”
The track is filled with terrifying sounds. Though primitive in execution, its guitar and drum work would lay the foundation for Death and Black Metal. The non-stop, repeated chord patterns, unrelenting tempo, drilling bass, and slashing guitars match the lyrics perfectly. Nail-like drums chase the riffs. Words can’t fully capture it—just press play and let it brand itself into your brain.
In the fourth track, Tom both pays homage to Cronos and defines the music he creates: “Witching Metal.” The song opens with chaotic, filth-driven yet oddly catchy riffs—pure Venom worship. The lyrics echo the sins of Sodom and the wrath upon the people of Lot. Unlike the other tracks, this one includes wild solos, and the early roots of the "gor-gor-gor" bass sound—destined to become iconic—are clearly heard. Witches, whores, devils, gods, sorcery, and Hell fill the air, and in the chorus, every door leads straight to Sodom. It’s a piece that sums up Tom’s entire artistic vision.
In the final track, we witness the roots—both musically and lyrically—of what Sodom would build in the years to come. The simple English lyrics persist here as well. A song about the horrors of war, this is the first soldier of the death squad. It begins with scraping, grinding guitars shifting between a couple of chords, and thunderous drumming. Tom’s guttural, blood-spewing roar of “War” bursts the song wide open. Throughout, his most bestial and violent vocals on the entire EP are on full display. Drums gallop like warhorses, guitars shred like machine guns, and the song reaches its destructive climax with a pounding drum solo and the echo of shrieking screams.
While in 1984 Slayer’s Haunting the Chapel EP and Voivod’s War and Pain were shaking North America, Europe answered with In the Sign of Evil—a record that threatened the entire world. Slayer, under Cronos’s influence at the time, still sounded tame next to this unholy EP. With In the Sign of Evil, Sodom not only laid the foundation for post-Venom Black Metal, but also sparked the explosion of Thrash in Brazil and delivered an extreme, cult masterpiece of metal history.