Children of Bodom is one of my all-time favorite bands. Their music is what first got me interested in Scandinavian metal and my life has never been the same since. With that said, I was obviously very anxious to hear their new album. Their previous effort Are You Dead Yet was extremely disappointing and I was hoping that that this new album would put them back on track to the good-ol' days of Hatebreeder and Follow the Reaper.
The album opens up quite promising and the first keyboard sounds trick you into thinking that their old sound is back. But when Alexi opens his mouth and the third word you hear is cunt, you know you're in for another broken english swear-fest like their previous two albums (I lost count of the word fuck after 20). I seriously thought their song titles and lyrics couldn't get worse than the last album but they did exactly that. "Lobodomy" "One Day You Will Cry" and "Roadkill Morning" are just some of the beautiful titles on the new offering from the Hate Crew. Not only that, but Alexi does not even attempt to change his vocal style. He has had the same raspy scream since COB started and I consider him one of the worst extreme metal vocalists. On the previous albums this didn't bug me at all because the music was so brilliant.
On their early albums, COB's music was haunting, original and catchy. While it still keeps its distinctly Finnish power/melodic death mix, it starts to sound more....American. Every once in a while a metalcore riff finds its way into the songs making it sound mainstream and sometimes boring. Gone are the days of the Janne/Alexi soloing duels and precisely timed medleys. As the band gains popularity they have seemed to have created a more generic sound.
All of my complaints aside, I want to point out that it is not a BAD album, it is just extremely disappointing from my perspective. If I had never heard COB before I would love this disc. It still has a sound of its own and pulls off something that no other band can. The album is solid with some well-written songs and flawless production. But after so many amazing albums to compare it to, this can hardly be considered a masterpiece.
7/10
