Children Of Bodom - Hate Crew Deathroll

Children Of Bodom began their career ten years ago, but it wasn't until frontman Alexi Laiho joined Thy Serpent and their vocalist Sami Tenetz gave a copy of Children Of Bodom's debut to their label, Spinefarm Records, that the band landed a deal for Something Wild. The debut (along with successive albums Hatebreeder and Follow the Reaper) were licensed to the rest of the world via Nuclear Blast.

During this time, Children Of Bodom becamse one of the most influential modern metal bands. Laiho and Alexander Kuoppala are shredders, playing fast-paced, technical thrash riffs with young keyboard wizard Janne Warman adding a competitive spirit. Through their last three albums, Children Of Bodom crossed over thrash, prog, death metal, and black metal (mainly due to Laiho's vocal rasp) audiences.

On Hate Crew Deathroll, the scythe-bearing reaper returns for a fourth time, but Children Of Bodom deliver a more modern, slower, sometimes groove-oriented disc. Similar to Arch Enemy's Wages of Sin, Hate Crew Deathroll was released in other territories more than six months ago. Now they've reached a licensing deal with Century Media for North America and are planning a tour here this fall.

"Needled 24/7" starts off the album on a high note--it's the best song Children Of Bodom have ever written--at least until you hear the next song, "Sixpounder," which somehow combines speed metal, groove, killer riffs, and melodic choruses, along with all the other Bodom trademarks. "Chokehold" is a modern thrash classic in the making.

This isn't so much a friendly band, as it is a catchier, sharper, and groovier album than we would normally expect. Nice improvement.