Children OF Bodom

In 2019 Children of Bodom played their last concert in Helsinki called "A Chapter Called Children of Bodom" before the band disbanded. Alexi Laiho (lead guitar, lead vocals) and Daniel Freyberg (rhythm guitar) continued their collaboration as Bodom After Midnight in 2020. Laiho, who was one of the founding members of Children of Bodom, passed away on December 29, 2020.

Children of Bodom came out of the heavy metal starting blocks in fine form. The group's debut, Something Wild, attracted much attention, as many listeners and critics marveled at the bandmembers' technical abilities, while others described Children of Bodom's music as fluffy and trite. Ultimately, the Finnish group's success within the commercially limited confines of progressive black metal quelled many naysayers, but not before the band received a few harsh reviews. With the huge amount of metal being released in Europe and America - and practically no radio outlets - good critical response was essential for late-'90s artists like Children of Bodom. And although some weren't impressed by the shifting arrangements and sparse keyboards of Something Wild, others refused to deny the musical accomplishment of the debut…

Children Of Bodom were a revelation back in 2003 when they hit their creative and critical peak with Hate Crew Deathroll. Since then, the Finns have toyed about with their celebrated sound, but with mixed results, scaling back the chilly atmospherics and settling into a groove that’s often at odds with the sharp end of their blackened melodeath…

With the presence of brutal riffs and keyboards, Finland's Children of Bodom sounds at times like Fear Factory fronted by a hardcore screamer, especially on their 2005 release, Are You Dead Yet? The group's fifth studio album (which was co-produced by Children of Bodom and Mikko Karmila, the chap who produced their previous outing, 2003's Hate Crew Deathroll) shows the quintet plowing full steam ahead, as the venom continues to bubble to the surface throughout. But the group also has an unmistakable prog metal edge to boot, as the tricky interplay between guitarist Alexi Wildchild Laiho (who also doubles as vocalist) and keyboardist Janne Warmen on "Punch Me I Bleed" certainly brings to mind Dream Theater…

Depending on where you vacation, the last thing you might expect from an album by a band named after a Finnish lake made infamous by a multiple homicide and titled Halo of Blood would be for it to be fun. Strangely enough, though, that's exactly the feeling that comes through on Children of Bodom's eighth album, which finds the Finnish band returning to deliver another dose of dazzlingly technical melodic death metal. Sure, the album is filled with lots of dark moments and macabre imagery, but listening to it is a bit like watching a fighter plane demo, which is to say it's loud, thrilling, and when enjoyed properly, it's likely to result in some hearing loss. Filled with big riffs and high flying solos, Halo of Blood is an album that's hard not to headbang along to…

One of the most refreshing things about Finnish metallers Children of Bodom is that they never cease to provoke their fans by doing exactly what they want to do when they want to do it. They take great pleasure in thwarting expectations at every turn. Ironically, this makes their (many) hardcore fans even more devoted. Holiday at Lake Bodom: 15 Years of Wasted Youth, a CD/DVD compilation that ranges from their debut offering in 1997 straight on through to 2011, contains 20 tracks from virtually every period in their existence. It's sure to piss off almost everyone for what's been excluded, though no one can argue that what's here is essential, with the possible exception of the previously unissued cover version of Rick Springfield's "Jessie's Girl"…