May 4, 1999 - Hatebreeder

Three weeks after my last release and a year and a half since their debut "Something Wild", Children Of Bodom released their second album "Hatebreeder" on May 4, 1999. Children of Bodom continue to play the same style of melodic death metal, but I think frontman Alexi Laiho improved his vocals a good deal between these albums. Let's check it out!

The album begins with "Warheart" and Henkka Seppala plays some great fast bass before everyone else joins in to complete the thrash-y main riff. The fast guitars sound solid and Laiho's vocals sound clearer than in this album, while still having that heavy raspiness to them. Jane Wirman adds some melodic keyboards overtop, but it's the thrash-y pace that I love and Laiho delivers a fittingly epic solo. Alexi goes low a couple times with his vocals, but they aren't my favourite, I think his usual high screams are much better. Pretty cool intro to the album! Up next is "Silent Night, Bodom Night" and it has a really catchy and awesome main riff that is mostly played on guitar, but Wirman syncs up on keyboards occasionally and things sound even better then! Wirman is all over this song with some nice melodic stuff in the chorus to break up the speedy verses and after a second chorus he plays a new keyboard riff that sets the stage for a cool new part. Laiho eventually solos overtop of this part and he does a spectacular job, with Wirman once again syncing up with Laiho to amazing effect. This is probably my favourite song of theirs so far! Track 3 is the title track "Hatebreeder" and Laiho leads the way with a pretty cool guitar riff and Alexander Kuoppala plays some nice fast rhythm guitar as well. Wirman adds some fast keyboards overtop of everything else and it makes for a pretty interesting riff that is both heavy with a touch of pop-y synths. Jaska Raatikainen plays a couple nice drum fills in a solid middle section, but they mostly stick to the main riff. They end the song though with a four straight solos! Laiho plays a short but wicked guitar solo, Wirman follows it up with a super fast keyboard solo that sounds awesome and then they do it all again! It's a pretty fantastic way to finish things off! The next track is "Bed Of Razors" and Wirman starts it off with some cool keyboards and Laiho syncs up and plays the same riff on guitar for another pretty epic and cool team-up. The dreamy keyboards mix surprisingly well with the fast and heavy guitars and this is a perfect example of how melodic death metal works. Wirman plays some organ that sounds great as well and we're treated to another nice back-to-back solo where once again Wirman does a spectacular job with the keyboard part. They wrap things up really nicely as well, just a well executed tune. Track 5 is "Towards Dead End" and they kick right into a pretty wicked main riff with some epic guitar and of course some cool keyboards as well. Laiho screams nicely overtop of the cool main riff that he is also playing, but he tries to go low again in the chorus and once again it's not my favourite. Wirman gets a chance for an organ solo and while it's not the flashiest is still sounds cool. The sing seems like it could be over at 3:45, but a new riff starts up that is really cool, it just doesn't seem related to the rest of the song. This over a minute instrumental part has a bunch of cool guitar in it and it's certainly an interesting way to wrap things up at almost five minutes. Up next is "Black Widow" and it has a typically cool main riff with some nice guitar and Wirman adds some epic synths as well. After a couple solid verses and choruses there's a decent instrumental part, but oddly no solo. The guitar solo finally comes at the end of the song and it's a nice way to finish things off as Laiho does a great job. Track 7 is "Wrath Within" and it starts like a pretty typical Bodom song. Laiho rips off a cool solo midway through and then there's a great melodic synced up part with Laiho and Wirman both playing some cool stuff that just sounds pretty sweet played at the same time. Very cool and long part that takes us mostly to the end of the song. The next track is a rare case of a song with the same name as the band, "Children Of Bodom". It has a really catchy and pretty awesome main riff with aike great guitar and keyboards throughout the song. The keyboards are super crazy in the chorus and Wirman just casually shreds in the background of it all! All the changes from part to part are really well done on this song and everything sounds pretty great. Wirman plays an excellent organ part at one point and then Laiho takes things away with some really cool guitar. Wirman continues to drop my jaw even lower with some phenomenal keyboards even before we reach the closing synth solo, which is also pretty insane! Easily the best song yet, so much cool stuff! The final song on the album is "Downfall" and Wirman starts it off with some more epic keyboards that form the backbone of another pretty sweet main riff. Laiho holds some nice long screams as well and this only adds to the heaviness of the cool guitars, and even the keyboards kit pretty hard at times! Everything is at both it's melodic and heaviest best and out of nowhere Laiho just starts to absolutely shred his guitar, which is somehow the appetizer for the next synced-up solo! That's right, Laiho and Wirman team up for a short solo and together things sound pretty awesome! They wrap things up beautifully as well and this might even be better than the really awesome last song! What a way to close things out!

That is the end of "Hatebreeder" and I thought it was a pretty cool album! Children Of Bodom improved upon their sound in just about every way and Alexi Laiho's vocals are much better on this album. There are truly no weak points and the last two songs were both pretty fucking good. I think it's easily better than their debut "Something Wild" and I hope the trend continues on their next album!