Guido "Atomic Steif" Richter has passed away

Metal maniacs (especially the fans of the German thrashers Sodom) have probably already heard of the passing of Guido Richter, aka ‘Atomic Steif’. Information about the drummer’s passing appeared in the public domain four days ago, but it turns out that the artist actually died a week earlier, i.e. on Sunday, August 31. The cause of this sad event has not been revealed.

Guido Richter was born on February 22, 1968 in Gelsenkirchen, Germany. In 1984, he co-founded the band Violent Force, which subsequently released several demos and one album. Between 1986 and 1989, he was a member of Living Death, with whom he recorded, among other things, the album Protected from Reality. From 1993 to 1995, he was the drummer for Sodom and can be heard on the album Get What You Deserve, which stayed on the German charts for nine weeks in 1994. After leaving the group, he co-founded the band Stahlträger, which self-released a demo and a full-length album in the late 1990s. Between 2003 and 2004, the drummer was a member of Assassin. He had two stints in the band Holy Moses (1990 – 1992 and 2007 – 2011) and released the album Agony of Death with them in 2008.

On the 6th of September, Tom Angelripper (Sodom‘s singer, bassist and leader) announced the passing of the band’s former drummer on social media:

“Dear Sodomaniacs. As I was informed today, our former drummer “Atomic Steif” passed away at the end of last week. The circumstances of his death are currently unknown. R.I.P., pal…”