22 November 2023
It was 1960 when four young people camping by Lake Bodom in Espoo, Finland, were attacked. Three of the young people died at the scene, the other was seriously injured, but the perpetrators of the incident could not be found. The injured survivor, after working as a truck driver for years and living a normal life, was arrested on suspicion of being the perpetrator of the murder due to new evidence discovered thanks to technological developments in 2004. He was detained for a certain period of time, and was eventually acquitted. The Finnish government even paid him compensation for the psychological damage caused. If the same incident had happened in a shitty country, even if he had been acquitted, they would have said “Sorry brother, it was a mistake” and thrown him in front of the prison gate.
Children of Bodom was founded in Espoo 37 years after the murders. Perhaps their great success was effective in bringing the murders to the agenda again, and therefore the survivor being tried as the perpetrator 🙂
COB made a small-scale revolution in the metal music world when they released their first album in 1997. By blending death metal and power metal, putting black metal sauce on it, and supporting this mixture with intense use of keyboards, they managed to obtain a more dynamic, modern, and extremely melodic music than most of the various hybrid genres previously tried. The amazing talent Alexi Laiho (guitar/vocals) took the band away with both his charisma and his compositions.
Personally, I think their first album was amazing and they couldn’t have done better throughout their career. In general, their next 2 albums were actually quite good. Even the next Hatecrew wasn’t bad either (especially the cover of Slayer’s Silent Scream and Angels Don’t Kill). However, the Americanization mode that started in some Nordic bands in the 2000s also affected Children Of Bodom.
They had already conquered Japan after the first two albums, but as the members (or the record company) set their sights on America, their music became more modern and their metalcore influences became noticeable. It is necessary to open a parenthesis here, even though it is not directly related to COB. This phenomenon called metalcore was originally formed by mixing the Gothenburg sound with hardcore/punk, taken as an example by American bands. It is a strange situation that many Nordic bands have become deformed by taking as an example a movement created after them. You don’t need to be a scientist to understand that music companies are particularly responsible for this.
As a result, in my opinion, COB went through a bad period with 3 unnecessary albums released in this period. But, against all odds, whenever the diminutive giant Alexi was on stage, he has always shone in terms of stage presence and musicianship. Their concerts were living proof of the band’s irrepressible rise. People could understand this better when they saw it through their own eyes.
Let’s come to Halo Of Blood. Halo Of Blood (song), which was released before the album was released, was very promising with its black metal tone and very harsh structure. Frankly, I was very hopeful because of these two pieces. But the impression I got after 7-8 listens was that this album was their best album since Follow The Reaper, but it still doesn’t come close to the top 3 albums. The music is quite harsh, melodic and decorated with COB-style keyboard scores. Both Janne (keyboard) and Alexi have done some very exciting work. The band also made 2 covers for the Japanese version. The first of these is Crazy Nights by Loudness, one of the most important metal bands from Japan, and the other is Sleeping In My Car by Roxette.
They did both covers very well. Especially the song Loudness is incredibly entertaining. COB is very experienced in covers (known as the Skeletons In The Closet cover album) and they are very free in their song selection. How many metal bands do Britney Spears covers? Roxette was an interesting experiment, although not irrelevant. I like Halo Of Blood the most. It’s a really tight song. Apart from that, Bodom Blue Moon, The Days Are Numbered and Damage Beyond Repair were the songs I like. COB came close to its longed-for musical structure, but failed to carry the punch it promised with the songs it released before the album to the entire album. Again, it’s not bad at all, but it’s an album below COB standards.
7,5/10
