Children Of Bodom's Reviews
Follow the Reaper (Average Rating: 9.40 out of 10)
Children of Bodom "Fear the Reaper" (Rated this album with 10 out of 10)
Reviewed by
Jeremy Ulrey
from Austin, TX
I can only hope the title is a not-so-playful swipe at Korn's best selling album, because the music encoded on this latest disc certainly isn't. Theoretically, Children of Bodom should sound not like Korn but instead maybe every other black/death hybrid under the northern European sun. The tortured vocals, neo-classical keyboards and epic riffs should ensure that; instead, the Bodom kids manage to fly their own flag by grafting the buoyant, enthusiastic energy of 80s power metal onto the rapidly fossilizing body of today's extreme thrash. The turn of the 80s saw a revolution in heavy metal, as did the rollover into the 90s, and why should we expect less from the first decade of the 21st Century? And while the incessant airplay afforded bands like Limp Bizkit and Godsmack, who for their part are making all things new old again, Children of Bodom and a handful of their peers are reversing the formula by turning the old into new instead. There's no reason "Follow the Reaper", which sits smugly at the crossroads between Stratovarius and Emperor, should work so well, but the odds are shattered by a brilliant conviction that song craft is what counts, trends being a dime a dozen and the dime worth less and less with each passing year. The torch is passed, and Children of Bodom are out to set your world on fire.
Buy this album on Amazon at $14.99
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