Sodom's new album, "The Final Sign of Evil", is scheduled for release in September via SPV Records, according to the group's webmaster Toto, who is also producing the CD. The album will feature re-recordings of the material from the German thrashers' classic first EP, "In the Sign of Evil", plus no less than seven bonus tracks, all of which were originally written during the "In the Sign of Evil" era or earlier but were never officially released. As a special bonus, the album will feature return appearances by the group's original drummer Chris Dudek (a.k.a. Witchhunter) and guitarist Josef "Peppi" Dominic (a.k.a. Grave Violator), both of whom were featured on the original 1984 EP.

Commented Toto: "Since last week we're recording the last guitars and two songs are left to do now. I believe at the end of this week the guitars and bass tracks are recorded. Our deadline for mixing and mastering is the 20th of July and our work is on schedule now. At the end we had some technical problems and during the production always some... medical problems. Aching shoulders, trachoma (that was me), backaches, colds and wounded feet. Sometimes the studio looked like a retirement home. After that the tracking of the drum parts caused a lot of problems."

The cover artwork for "The Final Sign of Evil", has been posted online (artwork by Andreas Marschall). Toto previously stated about the upcoming CD, "The official name is 'The Final Sign of Evil', and follows the plan to make the 'In the Sign of Evil' a complete album. So the seven additional tracks are not a real bonus, because they fulfill an album, like it should have done back in 1984."

Regarding how he got involved on the production side, Toto said, "Peppi heard a demo I produced with a side project which was founded by me back in 2003. A friend of mine (Frank Hübner, he's with me in the project and his neighbour) gave it to him. And after all they decided not to work with Harris Johns or Andy Sneap, they decided to run a little test with me. So in spring 2006 we started a two and a half week pre-production. They were happy with the sound and after four weeks I got the call: You're the one. Of course, that was a dream! In the following month I started to watch nearly every rehearsal, learned the songs and rehearsed with Chris, when Peppi was on holiday. A real big thing for an old mid-Eighties Sodom fan! But believe me: It's real hard work!"

On the subject of how the re-recordings are turning out, Toto said, "Some of the old songs will sound a little bit different, because Chris decided to change some of the drum parts. But don't mind it, because the classic one will stay as a classic, no matter what we're doing. Some will love it, other may hate it, that's the normal way life goes.

"Peppi and me are working on the guitars and it's a hard job for him. The last time he has been in a studio was for the recordings in 1984 for the 'Sign of Evil'. For Chris it was similar. Chris made his last recordings in 1994 for a project called Witchhunter which never been released. But both have done their very best. It's obviously that both had a hard time during the recordings."

As previously reported, Sodom will play a special 25th anniversary set at this year's Wacken Open Air festival, which is scheduled to take place August 2-4 in Wacken, Germany. The 120-minute performance will kick off with four songs from the band's latest, self-titled album, after which the group will be joined by several ex-members for a set of songs that have rarely or never before been played live. Making special guest appearances during this portion of the show will be Chris Witchhunter (drums), Grave Violator (guitar), Athätor (guitar), Frank Blackfire (guitar), Michael Hoffman (guitar), Andy Brings (guitar) and Atomic Steif (drums). Sodom will then close the gig with five more classics.