Follow the Reaper

Sometimes I ask myself whether the metal tropes and genres and bands I like best are what they are because I was able to listen to them with fresh, youthful ears, passionately ready to hear and to truly believe in and get excited about music, in a way that's harder to do as I turn 30. I only got into Children of Bodom in 2016, and their first three albums gave me the sort of rush I hadn't felt since young adulthood from a new metal act -- new to me, anyway. I thought that I'd picked all the low-hanging fruit within the genres I like best and that there wasn't much left. But after falling in love with Children of Bodom, despite finding out that there is in fact more great metal to be heard, I once again fear I've now heard all the best there is to hear -- because oh my God, this album kicks so much ass; I've only found one other band since then that I love as much -- and even then, it's only as much. Melodic metal just doesn't get much better than Children of Bodom's first three records, and 'Follow the Reaper' is the best of the best.

This is one of those very few albums in which every track is at least good. And there are more great tracks than good tracks here, too. There are even a couple of metal masterpieces. The first four tracks are a tour de force of melodicism, a master class in how to tastefully use synths, full of crisp, exciting guitar riffs, and so damn much energy. This album is so fun to listen to; the raw passion and sheer joy of this music makes it continually fresh. Dark yet exuberant? Apparently it can be done. It might be the center that holds the album together, in fact.

There's usually a song on every album I love that I think is unfairly unappreciated; in this case it's 'Taste of My Scythe', which is a better symphonic power metal song than 95% of symphonic power metal singles. On this song and many others, atmospheres are evoked that have the gothic, romantic-fantasy vibe of 'Oceanborn'-era Nightwish, but with a blackened, aggressive twist. 'Bodom After Midnight' is another track with synths reminiscent of a darker 'Oceanborn' in this way.

Single 'Hate Me!' is another star; it takes me back to the incomparable mania of being 21 and on a rampage aimed at who-the-hell-knows-what. It's like the embodiment of the spirit of metal. The raw energy on this track just pulsates.

But nothing is as good as 'Kissing the Shadows', one of the greatest album closers I've ever heard, a heartbreakingly beautiful masculine love song, intense and immersive -- and concluding with one of the best guitar duels put to record. I am blown away by this song; every second of its four-and-a-half minutes counts. I've successfully evangelized it to several people.

Under what sub-genre of metal does this record belong? Who knows? I guess it's melodic death metal, but the synthphonics are highly prevalent, the drumming and guitars are often more reminiscent of power metal than anything else, and the vocals are influenced heavily by black metal. There's also a kind of brooding, gothic atmosphere on a lot of songs reminiscent of female-fronted 'symphonic' acts. The syncreticism of 'Follow the Reaper' is a huge selling point to me. Like other favorites of mine, like Emperor and Epica, Children of Bodom didn't set out to make a 'death metal record' or whatever; they just set out to make a really good record, and let others figure out how to classify it. Personally, I'm not picky with how you classify it -- as long as you classify it as a masterpiece of metal.