Follow the Reaper

by

Children of Bodom

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I love metal. Ever since I was a freshman in high school when my cousin, a professional violinist who I've always looked up to in terms of music, introduced me to it back in the days. One of the bands that he hooked me up with was Children of Bodom. I'd say this is CoB's best album, but it's a very difficult choice. The music that this band produces is truly amazing, and this album is a perfect highlight of their career.

Each track is its own, no repeating riffs, no dull moments. What I find most amazing is that this band can change the moods of each song many times in a 3-5 minute range. The only band that I think does a better job than CoB is Opeth, but they use an average amount of 10 min per song to do this. This is what makes CoB so intense. They're not the heaviest, or the fastest, or the loudest band. But they are one of the most solid bands I have ever heard in my life. If you like metal, no, if you like rock in general, you would dig Children of Bodom.

Genre: extreme metal (melodic death metal, power, symphonic, black, neo-classical)

Follow the Reaper marks a transition for CoB. The black and neo-classical elements are diminished, and there's more power metal influences. I've listened to all of Children of Bodom's albums except Relentless Reckless Forever. And my opinion of all six is about the same.

The band has great music. Laiho is one of the best metal soloist of all time; his skill amazes me in almost every song. The riffs are great, and I like the keyboard/lead guitar melody duels. I like their goofy movie samples. Overall, I really like their blend of extreme metal genres with the melody of power metal.

I don't like their lack of variety. With just a couple exceptions, all of their songs are around the same tempo, same structure, same level of heaviness. This particular album has less variety than othrs. I don't like most of their lyrics. I understand they're not supposed to be serious, but it's not my thing.

Most importantly, I don't like Laiho's voice. And it angers me, because I would like this band so much more if they had a different lead singer. I've tried to have his singing grow on me, but it doesn't. This has nothing to do with screaming (I like screaming vocals.) I find his voice extremely unpleasant and mildly annoying. It's hard to enjoy the music when I'm attempting to not be annoyed by the vocals.

Thus, I give Follow the Reaper three stars.