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Trollheart · 10-23-2013, 02:20 PM

Are you dead yet? --- Children of Bodom --- 2005 (Spinefarm)

"Melodeth" is apparently the accepted name for melodic death metal, and by all accounts Children of Bodom have risen to the melodeth throne. This is their fifth album, on which I'm advised the previous influence of power metal and keyboards was toned back, so it'll be interesting to see how the album sounds. CoB come from Finland, which is known for some of the best power and progressive metal out there, but then it is also part of Scandinavia, where both black and death metal are enjoying something of a revival.

Hmm. Starts off like a new wave electronic band with bippy keyboards and squidgy bass, then guitar kicks in properly and the tempo goes skyhigh, so you're in no doubt you're listening to Metal. Screamed vocal from Alex Laiho but it's not too bad and the music is certainly heavy, after uncertain beginnings as "Living dead beat" gets underway. There's certainly more than an element of Power Metal in the title track, with some good keyboard work from Janne Wirman, but it's quite grindy in its way too, however the next one up could not be described that way at all, as it flies along on twin guitar rails and thunder drumming from Jaska Raatikainen.

Slowing right down with a marching, thumping beat is "Punch me I bleed" and you can definitely hear the "melo" part of melodeth coming through here, quite a bit of progressive metal too in the last minute or so. A machine-gun guitar riff and sparkly keyboards carry "In your face", and there's some good shredding in "Thrashed, lost and strungout", but generally a lot of this sounds quite similar, leaving me unfortunately not all that much to write about it. At least they made me smile with their cover version of Britney's "Oops ... I did it again!", which I already featured.

TRACKLISTING

1. Living dead beat
2. Are you dead yet?
3. If you want peace ... prepare for war
4. Punch me I bleed
5. In your face
6. Next in line
7. Bastards of Bodom
8. Thrashed lost and strungout
9. We're not gonna fall

Yeah, not a lot to say really. Not music I hate but nothing terribly original about it and nothing that much that stands out for me. A decent album, but not that much more.

Read more here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Children_of_Bodom

10-23-2013, 02:20 PM	#1983 (permalink)
Trollheart Born to be mild Join Date: Oct 2008 Location: 404 Not Found Posts: 26,971	Are you dead yet? --- Children of Bodom --- 2005 (Spinefarm) "Melodeth" is apparently the accepted name for melodic death metal, and by all accounts Children of Bodom have risen to the melodeth throne. This is their fifth album, on which I'm advised the previous influence of power metal and keyboards was toned back, so it'll be interesting to see how the album sounds. CoB come from Finland, which is known for some of the best power and progressive metal out there, but then it is also part of Scandinavia, where both black and death metal are enjoying something of a revival. Hmm. Starts off like a new wave electronic band with bippy keyboards and squidgy bass, then guitar kicks in properly and the tempo goes skyhigh, so you're in no doubt you're listening to Metal. Screamed vocal from Alex Laiho but it's not too bad and the music is certainly heavy, after uncertain beginnings as "Living dead beat" gets underway. There's certainly more than an element of Power Metal in the title track, with some good keyboard work from Janne Wirman, but it's quite grindy in its way too, however the next one up could not be described that way at all, as it flies along on twin guitar rails and thunder drumming from Jaska Raatikainen. Slowing right down with a marching, thumping beat is "Punch me I bleed" and you can definitely hear the "melo" part of melodeth coming through here, quite a bit of progressive metal too in the last minute or so. A machine-gun guitar riff and sparkly keyboards carry "In your face", and there's some good shredding in "Thrashed, lost and strungout", but generally a lot of this sounds quite similar, leaving me unfortunately not all that much to write about it. At least they made me smile with their cover version of Britney's "Oops ... I did it again!", which I already featured. TRACKLISTING 1. Living dead beat 2. Are you dead yet? 3. If you want peace ... prepare for war 4. Punch me I bleed 5. In your face 6. Next in line 7. Bastards of Bodom 8. Thrashed lost and strungout 9. We're not gonna fall Yeah, not a lot to say really. Not music I hate but nothing terribly original about it and nothing that much that stands out for me. A decent album, but not that much more. Read more here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Children_of_Bodom __________________ Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018 Last edited by Trollheart; 10-25-2013 at 01:06 PM.