Genre:Heavy
Subgenre:Modern Melodic Death / Thrash / Power Metal

Children Of Bodom are a five-piece metal outfit hailing from Helsinki, Finland, but they're not just another band. Imagine a bunch of friends, no, brothers, with a huge passion for music, but little clue on the business side of the whole thing. Going to the airport whenever they're told to with little idea where the next show even is.. Selling out big venues in every corner of the world, yet ripping it up in a cramped rehearsal room that looks more like a waste disposal shaft.. That's Children Of Bodom - a world acclaimed metal patrol that is an embodiment of the clichй of a passionate and pure at heart basement band consisting of best friends.

Formed in 1993 by two school buddies in their early teens - namely Alexi Laiho (guitars & vocals) and Jaska Raatikainen (drums) - Children Of Bodom is a solid unit, a family that has based its whole existence on a strong foundation: a brotherhood-like band chemistry that many bands whom they have toured with can only dream of.

Alexi, a former truant; current world-renowned guitar hero, begged to differ when his music teacher sniggered and insisted that metal music isn't something you can make a living out of. In spite of almost non-existant support from the mass media in their early days, their perseverance and countless hours of practice have taken the band from the very first band rehearsals in Alexi's fathers' garage to be a household name in the metal scene. They have fought their way over the years from the youth clubs of their original hometown, Espoo, to numerous, basically sold out headlining tours, and from articles in underground zines to the cover stories of major metal magazines. Thanks to their uncompromising attitude, the band have made themselves known for their striking mix of mind-blowingly technical, yet still extremely aggressive and catchy metal hybrid with a rhythm section heavier than that of fifteen MTV rock bands. Today Children Of Bodom are arguably the most extreme band to top the album and single charts in Finnish music history.

Spending most of their youth in a tour bus has not extinguished the band's drive to give 110% for their fans night after night. So, be sure to catch Children Of Bodom tear it up live or check out the stunning Chaos Ridden Years - Stockholm Knockout Live DVD to see why they consider their discography to be only a mere preview of their thunderous live act of jaw-dropping musical acrobacy and intense interaction between both fans and each other. The Hate Crew is now back on the road, crossing the globe left and right, in support of their sixth and most unforgiving studio effort Blooddrunk.

The first thing that was noticable was that this was noticably Children of Bodom. I know that’s pretty much a given, but from the first second of the first song you know roughly what to expect… you just don’t know how long for!

‘Not My Funeral’ is definitely a fantastic song; the usual swirling of Janne Warman’s keyboard layers the ferorious drum patterns and Alexi’s trademark vocals. I recall sitting there thinking that the rest of the album would have to go some way to top it…

Whilst ‘Shovel Knockout’ and ‘Roundtrip to Hell and Back’ were equally as impressive, and perhaps even slightly less so (as again, jaded as the decision may have been, the first track really was a humdinger), I recall making a mental note that ‘Pussyfoot Miss Suicide’ was the weakest track on the album, though with a second listen this opinion may change.

By the time the title track kicked in the room of eager pre-emptive listeners were already drooling, jotting notes or, like me, were tapping away with a rather joyous grin of the elated variety. Whilst still unmistakenly Bodom, it really does feel like ‘Relentless, Reckless Forever’ is a step-up, especially from ‘Blooddrunk’, for the Finnish masters. If anything can be said for the evidence on display after working with producer Matt Hyde it’d be along the lines that it’s actually improved the tiny lose-ends (of which they were few and far between at best anyway).

From memory, the track ‘Ugly’ opens with a chuggy Bodom-esque bass gallop that forms the backbone for the song. If it wasn’t ‘Ugly’, it was definitely on there somewhere! Another gem. However, I made another mental note about just how good a song ‘Cry of the Nihilist’ was. I even made a mark on the journey home that it was possibly the strongest song on the album, a praise I reserved for the first track up until this point. It’s another powerhouse (weahh!) of a song; pure melodic thrash metal with twinklings of sublime keyboard virtuosity and more glorious gallops than you could shake Benjamin Hur’s ranch at. It leads quite nicely into the track selected as the first single, ‘Was it Worth It?’.

Ironic, really, as by this point you will be crying and declaring that it most definitely WAS worth it, especially when you’re recalling that you actually took the day off work to listen to this for the first time! The impression given by the producer was that the song was a departure from the Children of Bodom sound and was their “most commercial offering so far”. Now, I have seen stills from the new video shoot and the crusty commercial cheese is obvious; but fortunately, this isn’t the case for the song. I am not even sure that I’d have been able to pick this out from the album as being the first single if I didn’t know beforehand; it really isn’t THAT far from what we’ve heard before. Impressive.

Which leads to the last ‘official’ track on ‘Relentless Reckless Forever’, ‘Northpole Throwdown’. Another beefcake of a song; all the usual hallmark sounds, scales and twiddles demonstrated effortlessly beforehand on every song. By this point, aware that the album was drawing to a close, I had happily determined that was this not only one of the stronger Bodom releases, it could possibly even be the BEST; some task considering how highly I rate the earlier releases, specifically ‘Hatebreeder’.

The album closes with a bonus track; a fantastic cover of ‘Party All the Time’ by the legendary Eddie Murphy and Rick James. On which releases this cover will be wasn’t clear, but I can only imagine it’ll be all of them. The Japanese will probably get another DISC knowing how these things tend to pan out… All the same, it’s the first time that a Children of Bodom song has had any ‘clean’ singing on. Who it is doing this is beyond me; it wasn’t a voice I easily reckonised and quite frankly, it could have been anyone. As I’m a gambling man, I’ll hazard a guess that it was Janne…

In mild conclusion, I would say that the most noticable thing, to me, that improved the whole album is that Alexi’s vocals seem to have been notched up a bar… Perhaps it was the quality of a studio environment but I was always disappointed that the vocals were ever so slightly less powerful on the recorded releases, but this helped shape their distinctive sound. I am keen to listen to this album again for many reasons, but to confirm if this is the case is definitely one of them!

One thing that I feel I should address is just HOW important and talented I know Janne Warman to be to the Bodom sound; as my note above suggests, whilst the band are of a high calibre of musicianship, the song structures and merits owe a lot to his quite simply breathtaking keyboard skills, reminiscent (and loosely inspired by) the genius work of Jens Johansson.

Though I will re-address this ‘review’ when I have the album in my possession to listen to properly, I don’t think much of what I’ve said will change. This truly, truly is a great album and it was a fucking honour to get the chance to listen to it before all of you.

Tracklist:
1. Not My Funeral
2. Shovel Knockout
3. Roundtrip To Hell And Back
4. Pussyfoot Miss Suicide
5. Relentless Reckless Forever
6.Ugly
7. Cry Of The Nihilist
8. Was It Worth It?
9. Northpole Throwdown

Bitrate:126 k
Size:54 MB

Bitrate:320 k
Size:84.98 MB

Añadido (2011-03-09, 3:47 PM)
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Children of Bodom- Hatebreeder

Añadido (2011-03-09, 3:48 PM)
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Children of Bodom - 2008 - Blooddrunk

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