Blooddrunk

The very edge of a crisis?

It is doubtful whether anyone wants to read a long introduction in the article about Children Of Bodom therefore let's get down to business right away. So, Children Of Bodom recorded their new album. This news makes you feel both really excited and quite anxious at the same time. It is quite clear why it excites but it brings that anxiety because Children Of Bodom are actually walking on the very edge of a crisis. Of course, such a statement may seem at least weird for some people. What kind of a crisis are you talking about? The band is standing at the peak of success, the sales grow, their shows sell out and as a matter of fact they are one the most famous bands on the present-day metal scene. But the question has nothing to do with their success. The thing is that for many fans of this band a real Children Of Bodom style was represented on their early albums such as Hatebreeder or Follow The Reaper and those changes, which became so evident on their latest Are You Dead Yet?, produced an impression their fans could hardly call positive.

Children Of Bodom are trying to sit between two stools

However, it seems like this problem doesn't really exist for Alexi Laiho and company. A shift towards American Metalcore could have confused some part of their European audience but in return it pushed their fame up in Northern America. On their newest album Blooddrunk Children Of Bodom are trying to sit between two stools. On one hand it seems like they have caught the disturbance among their old fans and tried to fix the situation somehow. All the typical traits of Children Of Bodom like soaring speedpower riffing and virtuosic solo duels of guitar and keyboards are represented hear in a full volume. But Blooddrunk is not Follow The Reaper Pt. Two. It may be true that Alexi Laiho wanted to get back to his primal songwriting style but contemporary metal trends simply cannot leave his mind alone. Here and there you stumble across fully hackneyed moves, strange attempts a-la Lamb Of God, repetitions of themes that lead to nowhere and actually, the material, in general, gives your ear a chance to hang on some certain hooks not that often.

Blooddrunk will find its listener

However, it's not that bad at all. As a whole thing this mixture sounds more Bodom-like than not. Listening to Smile Pretty For The Devil for instance you can tell for sure that it was Alexi Laiho who invented it. One of the most exemplifying tracks here is Done With Everything, Die For Nothing. It is probably the most felicitous variant of how Children Of Bodom can crossbreed extreme powerspeed with thrash metal. To cut a long story short, Blooddrunk has some good stuff indeed but they could make it better all the same. That very sparkle and emotionality, which used to make their songs so alive and used to smooth some shortcomings, have simply disappeared somewhere. The problem, by all appearances, lies in that Laiho is trying to adopt ideas that collocate with his own style in pretty unnatural way. But this is only half of a problem. It all seems like he doesn't really want to struggle to make the high-grade material any longer. Perhaps he would like to but something prevents him from doing it, may be years and maybe he simply doesn't find it necessary. This way or another, it all turned Blooddrunk into a set of catchy riffs. The album will definitely find its listeners; they are still a strong band anyway, but most likely among teenagers rather than among their old fans.