Follow the Reaper

I can remember the night I first heard this album. I was chilling out in a basement with some friends and a friend was spending a little too much time trying to download guitar tabs as opposed to watching NBA basketball and drinking beers with us. When we asked him what band's guitar tabs he was looking for, he responded that he was looking for Children of Bodom tabs, specifically from their album Follow the Reaper. Having never heard of the band before, I asked him to play some of the music. Years later, I finally got my hands on a copy of Follow the Reaper for my own, and found myself reliving that night all over again.

Follow the Reaper is as close as you can possibly get to a perfect metal album. There is not one thing on this album that someone who is into heavy metal could not like. Perfect composition, brain crushing levels of intensity combined with with an epic atmosphere and overtone that cannot be found anywhere else along with a slew of other great things from other metal genres thrown in for extra flavor, Follow the Reaper makes a very strong argument for being considered the best metal album ever.

The one thing that strikes me about this album, even when I listen to it nowadays, is how everything is so balanced yet sounds so unrestrained, so harmonious yet so distinct, with each musician bringing a distinct element to the table that enhances the music in it's own way while perfectly complementing the other members. Right when the first guitar riffs of the title track grace your ears, you will hear what few bands (Children of Bodom or otherwise) have achieved near perfectly since. Right when you hear it, you are blown out of your chair by a set of riffs and harmonies so forceful it is like getting hit with a steel battering ram. All the while Janne Warmen's keyboards cut into like Roy's (the band's mascot) scythe cuts through flesh. Then the drums move come in, and you get the idea. Everything and everybody's role is just so perfectly executed that it works perfectly together yet stands out on it's own. There are very few albums that I can even name that do this, and Follow the Reaper does it the best out of all of them.

The guitar work on Follow the Reaper blows me away each and every time I listen to it in it's entirety, with the guitars more then capable of carrying the songs on their own. Each song is loaded with so many quality riffs it is hard to pick out which ones are the best, but the best about them is yet to come. There are so many riffs within each song that you would think this music would sound overly pretentious and be a "wank" fest. That is not the case. Each riff not only flows into the other, but is capable of standing on it's own and wowing the listener each time out. On top of that, the album is loaded with some of the most intense, complex, well crafted guitar harmonies between Alexi and former rhythm guitarist Alexander Kuoppala that are placed at just the proper time to enhance the mood and epic factor. I do not know how much time was given into the placement of these riffs and harmonies, but Alexi clearly got it right with the composition. The results are flawless.

I normally do not give up space for a separate paragraph to the lead guitar work, but here this album deserves special treatment. No one, and I mean no one in heavy metal, doubts just how good of a lead guitar player Alexi Laiho is. His solos are ridiculously fast and while they are far from the most advanced solos theory wise (though they are far from being basic), Alexi is an example of a guitarist who's technique trumps his overall theory ability, and his technique trumps it by a long shot. Alexi's alternate picking skill is arguably among the best in the world of heavy metal lead guitar, and he combines it with some perfectly executed sweep picking, extremely precise and fine tapping, and some killer whammy bar effects that are never overused. But none of that matters if no one cares to hear a solo or hear shred bursts that stand on their own (which this album contains a lot of). Alexi's lead guitar work is composed so well in terms of theory, technique, and length of each solo that you never feel like the solos are overdone or are pretentious. Rather, you are amazed by these solos. These are the kind of solos that make you think "Damn I wish I could play that!". In that regard, Alexi's lead playing is truly special.


Keyboardist Janne Warmen provides arguably the second most important element to the music on Follow the Reaper. While the music of Follow the Reaper would probably be considered okay to good if it was entirely carried by the guitars, his keyboard performances add something to the music that can be compared of when you put a super charger on an already powerful car engine. His keyboard work just makes the music that much better. Using a variety of sounds and synths that range from orchestral strings, classic piano and harpischord, to a variety of band and wave synths, his performance stands out to help make the music truly epic in every regard. Songs like the title track, Children of Decadence, Mask of Sanity, and Hate me sound just that much better with his keyboard work providing the extra ambient tone, atmosphere, and epic quality to the music. Each solo duel with Alexi is just a wowing experience, and truly a sound to behold.

The two most underrated musicians on Follow the Reaper are drummer Jaske Raatikanien and bassist Hennka Seppala. These two guys provide the necessary rhythmic foundation that gives Follow the Reaper's music an extra amount of heaviness and punch that few albums have, and pushes this album's music over the top. Jaske's drumming is top notch, cycling through numerous different beats and rhythms at a variety of different tempos throughout each and every song. He makes excellent use of his whole kit, using the double bass in a variety of ways along with his hands to create absolutely amazing rhythms. Bassist Hennka Seppala can be heard throughout the whole album, even if he simply serves to provide the extra low end between the guitars, keyboards, and drums. You do not hear him stand out much on his own aside from a bit on the title track, but that is just fine. He does his job more then adequately.

The only real issue I have this album is the lyrics, but these lyrics are really only here just for Alexi to have something to bark about. Alexi's vocal approach is done just fine on this album, though it clearly is the weak area of the album. While the vocal patterns are catchy and his growling projects out fiercely on it's own, this is not an album you listen to for the vocal performance. The lyrics for the most part, do not seem to really make sense even if they do sound reasonably coherent. For the most part, they deal with issues regarding oneself and are slightly introspective and dark. Once again though, Follow the Reaper is not an album you listen to for the lyrics or the vocal performance. Despite this, it does little to detract from the album.

Follow the Reaper is without a doubt, a defining metal album and arguably the metal album of the previous decade (2000s). Each time I listen to this album, I get taken back to my friend's basement and the night we were drinking beers, watching NBA basketball, and one of our friends was downloading guitar tabs for Follow the Reaper. Plain and simple, this is as close as it gets to a perfect metal album.