Aku sebenarnya memang langsung tidak mengenali band ni. Namun apabila aku cuba mengenali band-band melodikal death metal, nama Children Of Bodom memang sukar nak diketepikan.
Sebabnya mereka turut sama berjuang di landasan yang sama. Maklumat yang aku dapat tentang mereka datangnya dari pelbagai laman yang berpaksikan melodikal death metal.
COB lahir pada tahun 1997 namun rohnya telah lahir terlebih dahulu pada tahun 1993 di bawah panji Inearthed. Bersama Inearthed mereka sempat menghasilkan 2 demo yang aku tak pasti tajuknya. Nama COB lahir menurut kisahnya dari tragedi pembunuhan 3 remaja di sebuah tasek yang bernama Bodom sekitar tahun 60an. COB bijak mengalunkan melodikal mereka dengan kombinasi black, death dan thrash metal.
Vokalisnya kedengaran seolah-olah jeritan yang sama seperti mana-mana band black metal biasa. Mungkin agak keterlaluan kalau aku katakan alunan melodikal mereka lebih kepada Iron Maiden sebab album mereka dibawah nama Follow The Reaper banyak mengadunkan irama berbentuk The Beast. Namun kebijaksanaan susunan muzik mereka memberikan satu bentuk irama melodikal yang tiada tandingannya.
Berikut adalah bio ringkas COB :
Asal: Finland
Tahun: 1993
Kategori: Melodic Death Metal
Anggota:
Alexi Laiho - Vokalis/Gitar
Henkka Sepp - Basis
Jaska Raarikainen - Dram
Alexander Kuopalla - Gitar
Janne Warman - Kibod
Children Of Bodom are absolutely not your standard dose of scandinavian black / death, this is something else, the soundtrack for the unsolved, eerie." - Spinefarm Records. Children Of Bodom hail from Espoo, Finland (Espoo is a city near Helsinki, Finland's capital). The band's name relates to one of Finland's greatest murder mysteries (still unsolved), the murders at the Lake Bodom (located in southern Finland). In the 1960s four teenagers were camping at the lake and three of them were butchered by some maniac with an axe. This murder case has bred many urban tales, and now, this band. The band was originally formed with a different name ("Inearthed") in 1993, had person and style changes, made a couple of demos and played some gigs, and were to publish their debut album through a small belgian record company. However, Spinefarm Records got hold of the demo and made a deal of three albums with the band. Describing or categorizing the music of Children Of Bodom is difficult. It's a bizarre mixture of classic 80's heavy (WASP, Ozzy Osbourne, Judas Priest) and melodic, pompous power metal (Helloween, Stratovarius), lots of neo-classical guitar-heroism (Randy Rhoads, Yngwie Malmsteen, Steve Vai), some trash (Stone) and death metal (early Sentenced) with barking, screamed vocals.
Also lots of classical music influences can be heard both in the guitars and keyboards. Still, the band remains whole, tight and very unique which is unusual in metal-music nowadays. Despite their young age (most of them being below 25), these musicians are very adept with their instruments (e.g. Alexi Laiho has already achieved some sort of guitar-hero status) and still better, manage to compose great songs unlike many so-called super-bands. The songs are filled with great melodies, catchy riffing and hooks (ready your air-guitar), while the hoarse vocals and fast drumming bring heaviness to the songs. The songs are mostly written by Alexi Laiho, who both sings and plays guitar. Many guitar-heroes tend to get their kicks just by wanking the fretboard with fast scales and runs stolen from classical composers and creating songs around solos (one swedish guy comes to mind...) but in this band, the fast technic playing really suits in the songs. Printed lyrics can be found only for few songs, and because of the singing style, it's difficult to make out the vocals. However, I guess lyrically the songs deal with the dark sides of life ("yleisesta vitutuksesta", as we finns quite often see it). The release of "Something Wild" in late 1997 and warming up for Dimmu Borgir's gig in Helsinki really got the big rock rolling. Finnish metal underground and the music press praised the band. Amusing though, one music magazine described the band's above-mentioned gig and music as "black metal, capable of development".
A contract with Nuclear Blast brought the album abroad and the band went on tour with other Nuclear Blast bands, and began to get attention beyond Finland. Before their second full-length, the band released two singles, "Children Of Bodom" and "Downfall", and participated on a Sepultura tribute album, "Sepultural Feast", by playing "Mass Hypnosis". The second album, "Hatebreeder", was released in the beginning of 1999. Alexi Laiho also plays every now and then in Impaled Nazarene (finnish nuclear metal band) and is in a multinational band called Sinergy, whose album "Beware The Heavens" got released in june 1999. Sinergy is a band of Alexi Laiho, Kimberly Goss, Ronny Milianowicz, Sharlee D'Angelo and Jesper Stroblad. Worth checking out! While touring in Japan in summer 1999, some recordings were made at Tokyo's Club Citta. This resulted as "Tokyo Warhearts" which was released in october 1999.
At the beginning of May 2000 CoB released their new single 'Hate Me'. The single went to number one in finish charts. On the 30th of October the new album Follow The Reaper was released in Finland. The album was released in Europe in January, 2001, and in the USA in February, 2001. In the first week Children Of Bodom's Follow The Reaper sold over 50,000 copies in Middle-Europe. In Germany the album reached position 46, in France it went to number 88, and in Austria it even went to 38. In Finland the album reached its highest chart position at number three.
Something Wild CD
Release year: 1997
info:
The new European edition has 'Children Of Bodom' as a bonus track and the Japanese edition has a cover of Sepultura's 'Mass Hypnosis'.
The intro of 'Deadnight Warrior' is taken from the movie 'It' and the intro speech for 'The Nail' is taken from 'Nightmare On Elm Street 2'. The opening riff for 'Red Light in My Eyes, part 2' is from Mozart's Symphony no. 25 and later there's a riff from 'Requiem'.
Follow the Reaper CD
Release year: 2000 Follow the Reaper Children of Decadence
Reviu oleh aku :
Follow The Reaper sebuah buah tangan dari Children Of Bodom tahun 2001. Lama dah album ni. Tapi saja aku beli yang lama-lama ni sebab selalunya album baru tak menyengat seperti yang lama. Bak kata pepatah makin tua makin pekat santannya. FTR ni memang sebijik macam tribut untuk The Beast Iron Maiden. Sebab alunan melodinya mirip dan hampir sama macam The Beast. Entah mungkin agak keterlaluan tuduhan aku ni. Tapi kenyataannya begitulah.
Tak ada apa yang istimewa sangat dgn album ni. Apa yang menariknya hanyalah tarikan maut jeritan vokalisnya yang hampir sama seperti vokalis band black metal. Bagi aku sukar nak cari vokalis berteraskan melodikal death metal bersuarakan black metal. Alunan muzik bagi aku tak sehebat In Flames atau Callenish Circle. Mungkin COB harus meneroka lebih jauh ke dalam akar umbi melodikal death metal.
Ciptakan satu kelainan bukan persamaan dengan band-band otai. Sungguhpun itulah idola mereka namun idola bukanlah alat yang mengawal kreativiti pemuzik.
