Children Of Bodom - Blooddrunk (2008)

Now, Children of Bodom has lately established themselves as one of the most popular metal bands on the planet, an accomplishment that inevitably irked dedicated metal fnas worldwide. Their last few albums featured much more mainstream song-writing than their early efforts, leaving many old fans skeptical about the direction Children of Bodom would take on "Blooddrunk".

The question arose: would Children of Bodom write and album showing a return to form or an album for Billboard charts?

Well, the answer is that they seemed to have a found a happy medium on "Blooddrunk".

The industrial overtones present throughout "Are You Dead Yet?" are still very present on "Blooddrunk" as are the catchy chorus song structures. However, the overall feel of the album is more akin to thrash metal than their previous experiments with power metal and traditional/heavy metal asthetics.

The instruments are all played exceptionally well throughout the effort, something we've come to expect of Children of Bodom. The lead guitar work and vocals of Alexi Laiho are as fantastic-sounding as ever, but tend to grow stale over the course of the album. There are a lot of cases where you will happen upon riffs and solos that you could have sworn you have heard a million times before on Children of Bodom's past albums. Still, a few melodic gems can be found on the album, such as sections of the the album's title track. I'd sum up the overall feel of the vocals with the word "monotony", but he has never been known for his vocal range or technicallity.

Children of Bodom's rhythm section has always been phenomenal, and the performance on this album is no exception. Rhythm axe-man Roope Latvala once again demonstrates his technical prowess, holding down faster riffs than ever. Why they let Alexi play lead instead of Roope, I'll never know. The drumming of Jaska Raatikainen has evolved to include more technical metal elements such as prominent blast-beats and double bass passages, but still retains the legions of interesting fills that makes him stand out in my mind. Henkka "Blacksmith" is another excellent player lost in the mix, save for a few well-executed bass passages.

So, with all this criticism of mixing and organization problems, why did I feel the album deserved such a high score? Two words: Janne Wirman. Somehow, this man manages to use the keyboards to turn a fairly typical album into something fresh and interesting. From the opening passages of "Tie My Rope" and "Blooddrunk" to the increased use of prominent keyboard presence found throughout the album, Wirman shows once again why he is one of metal's most revered keyboardists. The evolution he displays here is amazing in itself. The odd keyboard structures in tracks like "Banned From Heaven" are absolutely stellar.

So, the final verdict? Children of Bodom explores all possible meanings of "If it's not broke, don't fix it" on this album, which sometimes results in repetitive and indistinct songs. Improved elements such as more professional "gang shouts" and the growth in the band's use of keyboards in their writing more than balance out the negative aspects of the album though, in my opinion.

This is the album you want if you're a Children of Bodom fan (or even just a general thrash metal fan) who is looking for a more keyboard-driven album than their past work.

Stand-out tracks include the title track and "One Day You Will Cry".