Follow the Reaper

Love for Children of Bodom is rather in scant supply these days, but Alexi Laiho and his cohorts were known to own a heart or few a couple of decades ago. Their appeal probably lay in their fairly unique cross of genres: by no means the only power metal band to include melodeath elements (or was it the other way round?), their high-speed, triumphant sound avoided most of the clichés of both genres, while the surprisingly harsh vocals led to fewer lyrical hooks though the added brutality countered the occasionally flowery sound of such melodic material. It's difficult to say (for me at least) whether CoB really ended up worse off for their transition towards more modern and accessible waters, yet it is evident that an album with such dominant lead instruments as Follow the Reaper hasn't been repeated in recent years.

I always used to find early CoB rather too chaotic to be totally enjoyable, something that I still find these days. There really is a lot going on in terms of melodies, riffing, rhythms, and vocals all coming in loud and fast almost all the time. I think the problem for me is not that the individual components are unworthy or unpleasant, but more the fact that they all pound in at the same kind of frequency (this is a high-pitched album if ever there was one), with shrill, trebly guitars fighting against crisp, slapping drums and higher yet slightly sweeter keyboard sounds, all topped off by Laiho's gritty snarl, which probably diverges from the usual trend of screamers to be low because of his smaller stature and the pace of the lyrics. Therefore, listening to CoB for an hour is probably a very tiring experience, though it's fortunate that most of their albums are around 40 minutes in length, as is the case for Follow the Reaper. Also useful in this regard is a song like 'Everytime I Die', which takes a more laidback approach to the same material, allowing the melodies to breathe and drive the song instead of throwing everything at the listener as fast as possible, an approach which occasionally makes for an uncomfortable experience and robs the leads of some of their effect.

As such, I'm not disagreeing that the Finns are an accomplished bunch of musicians (I sure wish I could play this fast), though it just goes to prove that chops aren't everything. Calling guitarists Laiho and Alexander Kuoppala anything but stars of the show would be incredibly cruel as they drench every song with a buffet selection of diverse riffs, alternately soaring/screeching melodies, and many blistering leads; however, it would also be churlish not to admit how much of an impact Janne Warman has on the sound of these songs, intertwining the busy guitars with his own melodic touch and going off on a similar number of equally exciting solos. Personally, I find them slightly less cool than the guitar leads, but then again I'm not generally a keyboard fan. What all this adds up to is a shitload of notes per minute, so anyone not keen on ballads is going to be very happy, something that Jaska Raatikainen endorses by playing a comparable shitload of beats. He doesn't exactly get many standout moments, though the fill that opens 'Bodom After Midnight' is pretty damn tasty, while Henkka Blacksmith even finds time to make himself known with brief bass solo slots during 'Hate Me!'.

These two opposing feelings of overdone energy and excellent musicianship have also been cited as the reason why Dragonforce have not met with universal approval. Naturally, CoB have more of an overt extreme element to their music, what with the harsh vocals and generally darker tone, though the brevity of their songs is an additional reason to choose the Finns over their more long-winded competition. The reason I bring up this comparison is because I feel that the frenzied nature of some of the compositions here harms instead of helps Bodom's aims, leaving me slightly lost at moments in the album, when I fail to remember which song I'm listening to, just as when I listen to Dragonforce. CoB's melodies and riffs - while certainly not all the same - tend to be of the same type, something that the harsh production emphasizes, adding to the feeling of discomfort that I mentioned earlier. As a result, I can't always enjoy this as the musicianship and songwriting deserves, leaving me with mixed feelings about the overall quality. There are no especially poor songs, 'Bodom After Midnight' and 'Kissing the Shadows' being marginally the pick, though I don't find it easy to select individually enjoyable tracks, even if there are plenty of entertaining moments.

My overall impression of Follow the Reaper therefore probably seems rather confused, which would be an accurate summary of my feelings. I appreciate the stellar musicianship and would possibly go so far as the say that CoB's instrumentalists were at their highest quality here, as well as producing the finest leads and most persistent melodies of the band's career. That said, I prefer individual songs from most of their other full-lengths, such as the memorable 'Lake Bodom' and 'Bed of Razors' from the earlier releases, as well as 'Next in Line' and 'Hellhounds on My Trail' from the maligned later period. In conclusion, I think that this should be Children of Bodom's best album, yet I can't bring myself to actually say that it is.