November 16, 1997 - Children Of Bodom and Something Wild

Almost three weeks after my last release a new band joins my library when Children of Bodom released their debut album "Something Wild" on November 16, 1997. But who are Children of Bodom? They are a five-piece melodic death metal band from Espoo, Finland consisting of drummer Jaska Raatikainen, bassist Henkka Seppälä, rhythm guitarist Alexander Kuoppala, keyboardist Janne Wirman and frontman Alexi Laiho, who plays lead guitar, sings lead vocals and writes all the songs! Similar to Arch Enemy last year, Children of Bodom play a very heavy style of metal, but they definitely have melodic elements and harmonized guitars/keyboards. Let's check out these Finnish metalheads!

The album begins with "Deadnight Warrior" and it's got a pretty fat main riff with some cool guitar by Laiho leading the way and some solid keyboards by Wirman as well. Laiho's vocals are harsher than just singing but they're not quite a full scream either and he's pretty hard to understand. It's not the best vocals, but it's metal enough to fit the mood nicely. Things stop briefly as Wirman plays some cool piano before they ramp nicely into another fast metal riff. Laiho plays a pretty sweet melodic guitar solo and this was a pretty good introduction to what Children of Bodom are all about. Up next is "In The Shadows" and Seppala plays a pretty cool bass riff that everyone builds around and we hear some pretty epic keyboards by Wirman. Laiho sings in a lower voice on this one at times and he sounds better mixing the low and high yells together. The keyboards sre very melodic and epic and they sound pretty good mixed with the heavy guitars and bass. They reach thrash speeds at some points and I love how that sounds and when the guitar and keyboards sync up that sounds pretty good too. Wirman plays a ton of catchy and epic keyboards on this six minute song and Laiho sounds pretty good on both vocals and guitar the whole way through. Track 3 is "Red Light In My Eyes, Pt. 1" and it has a slow but pretty epic main riff with Laiho holding some long notes overtop. They ramp into a more typical Bodom riff that is much faster, but still has elements of that original riff as Laiho nicely screams the verse. Lots of cool guitar and keyboards once again (a staple of pretty much every Bodom song) and I love it when they go full thrash again with some great fast stuff by everyone. There's some nice fast drums by Raatikainen and this was a really well put together song with great slow and fast parts. The next track is of course "Red Light In My Eyes, Pt. 2" and it's a real fuckij banger! There's either some pretty wicked guitar or some pretty awesome organ at pretty much every moment of this song. Wirman gets an organ solo and it sounds so old-school and haunting, I love it! And it leads right into a great guitar part as well! Words don't do proper justice to all the awesomeness they packed into this one, an early favourite for sure! Track 5 is "Lake Bodom" and it opens with some great guitar by Laiho before they settle into a simpler but pretty catchy main riff. Laiho does a nice job leading the way on this one with some solid singing/screaming and lots of cool guitar. We get our first double solo as well: Laiho delivers a nice guitar solo and Wirman follows it up with a pretty wicked keyboard solo as well! I love it! Another solid song! Up next is "The Nail" and it has a strange opening with a man talking about how hate gives a man strength. Then they snap into a fast-paced and pretty sweet metal riff led by guitar, but with some great, epic backing synths. When the synths pick up, this song really gets going and there is so much awesome guitar and keyboards all over the place! It's perfectly executed madness and everyone sounds pretty awesome in their roles to keep this roller coaster going, especially of course Laiho and Wirman. Another pretty awesome song, and this is their debut! This short album wraps up with it's last track "Touch Like Angel Of Death" and after raging out as usual Wirman's epic keyboards take thing in a new direction before they nicely return to the fast-paced main riff. Laiho whips out an epic solo that matches the mood perfectly, and includes some nice shredding as well! Wirman's keyboards take over again and once again we snap to the main riff to nicely jam things out.

That is the end of "Something Wild" and Inthought it was a pretty sweet debut album! This album is go, go go all the time and it has a ton of great guitars and keyboards. The rhythm section can also play pretty hard as well, so with Janne Wirman playing lots of epic and interesting keyboards and Alexi Laiho showing he is a decent singer, and an excellent guitarist, Children Of Bodom looks really exciting! This album was only a little over 30 minutes, so I look forward to their next release and some more awesome metal!