Children of Bodom- Blooddrunk

It seems like the Unholy Alliance tour of 2006 had a certain effect on Children of Bodom’s musical evolution and consequently their latest work “Blooddrunk”, which to an extent will hardly be considered a surprise given that the Finnish group was opening for the mighty Slayer for months in a row and that is similar to little children watching Sesame Street. Fucking dazzling musical education! However, what took me by surprise is the notion that the Finns also skipped their dinner time to catch up the New Wave of American Heavy Metal darlings known as Lamb Of God.
Let me explain, while opening theme “Hellhounds On My Trail”, sees the guitar work of Alexi Laiho and Roope Latvala gaining a certain Slayeresque ferocity, the following theme and title track smacks roundly of Lamb Of God. Its streamlined, catchy riffing coupled with some spoken passages and the voice of Alexi Laiho adopting a raspy tone akin to Randy Blythe makes it damn impossible not to draw such comparisons. If that’s a good thing or not, depends of your opinion regarding the North American band and I for once actually enjoy some of their songs. What I really can’t stand is the over-hyped melodic pomposity and monotonous technical exuberance of some of Children of Bodom’s compositions. The synchronized alliance of Janne Wirman’s neo-classical keyboard lines with the Power Metal guitar wankery of Laiho/Latvala has long run out of freshness and excitement, yet album after album the band continues to rehash the exact same formulas. Songs like “Lobodomy”, “One Day You Will Cry” and “Done With Everything, Die For Nothing” are clear examples of such unimaginative and mindless songwriting, all sounding pretty generic and unchallenging.
I guess more tours in support of Slayer are in order to stir things in Children of Bodom’s camp. (4/10)

Band info: www.cobhc.com
Label info: www.spinefarm.fi