October 30, 2000 - Follow The Reaper

Six days after my last release and a year and half since "Hatebreeder", Children Of Bodom released their third album "Follow The Reaper" on October 30, 2000. Children Of Bodom continue to play the same style of melodic death metal and Alexi Laiho continues to improve as a vocalist. Let's see what their latest has to offer!

The album begins with the title track "Follow The Reaper" and after a short quote about death Laiho kicks in with a nice lead guitar riff, Janne Wirman adds some cool keyboards as usual and the rhythm section falls in nicely behind them, especially a solid bass riff by Henkka Seppala. Laiho screams a nice verse overtop and he continues to sound clearer and better with every album. The backing keyboards are really cool and of course Laiho plays lots of fast and cool guitar as well. Wirman sets the stage for solo time perfectly, and then he erupts with a super fast keyboard solo that sounds so fucking good! Laiho follows that right up with a pretty sweet guitar solo as well, and they nicely tie things up at the finish in this typically fast-paced and heavy (and pretty sweet) opener. Up next is "Bodom After Midnight" and Jaska Raatikainen is playing some cool drums right away, Laiho enters with a fast and catchy guitar riff and things sound super catchy and upbeat, words don't do it proper justice. There is just so much cool guitar in this song, I could never properly describe it all. Wirman syncs up with Laiho sometimes for some cool stuff and Laiho's verse and chorus sounds solid as well. There's a long build-up to solo time that has you on the edge of your seat, then Wirman delivers some more phenomenal and super fast keyboards! Laiho's guitar solo is unsurprisingly pretty good as well, but he never let's up the entire song, this is easily one of my favourites! Track 3 is "Children Of Decadence" and Laiho plays another super catchy and fast main guitar riff and the rest of the band beautifully builds a great heavy rhythm riff to back him. Laiho screams slowly and solidly along with the fast music and it meshes pretty nicely. Wirman adds some cool keyboards in a fast-paced and pretty sweet chorus and things sound pretty sweet everywhere! There's another great solo time with Wirman and Laiho both playing some more awesome stuff and Laihobends the song with a nice long final scream. Another pretty awesome song! The next track is "Everytime I Die" and it's got a slower pace, but a nice chugging and still plenty heavy main riff with some epic backing keyboards. It's over a minute before there's any vocals, but there's some cool guitar and keyboards that settle into a slow but epic verse with Laiho continuing to sound way less raspy than before. There's another nice long set-up to solo time, and then as is custom, we hear an epic guitar solo followed by a wicked keyboard solo. These guys show that they can slow it down and still sound great. Track 5 is "Mask Of Sanity" and Wirman drives this one at first with a fast-paced and cool keyboard riff, but then Laiho takes over with some really fast guitar that is so good! The furious pace in the verse and chorus sounds really good and after they burn through a couple of those Wirman slows things down with some epic piano that is the perfect set-up to a super fast solo time! Words do no justice at all to the amazing keyboard solo Wirman plays here, it's so fucking fast and crazy! They close out with a final chorus and this was another phenomenal song! Up next is "Taste Of My Scythe" and after a very angry spoken word intro they kick into  cool main riff with some nice keyboards by Wirman followed by a solid guitar riff by Laiho. Laiho screams a typical verse overtop and Wirman continues tobplay some epic backing keyboards behind the lead guitar. He also rips off a short but pretty sweet keyboard solo before they nicely return to the headbanging main riff. Laiho gets a chance to solo towards the end and not only is his solo unsurprisingly good, he wraps up the song with another cool guitar part as well. Track 7 is "Hate Me!" and Wirman plays another creepy keyboard riff, Seppala plays some nice bass in the background, and Laiho comes in on guitar, only for Wirman to then take over with some pretty sweet keyboards. Laiho screams a solid verse overtop this pretty catchy main riff and after a long while they finally do reach a chorus, which is also pretty catchy and has some more cool keyboards! Wirman is all over this song and things sound very accessible for Children of Bodom, but still plenty good! Laiho rips off a short but awesome guitar solo and then another verse and chorus later Wirman takes us to a new part with some slow but epic keyboards that set the stage perfectly for another great guitar solo by Laiho. It's another pretty good song, especially for a "single"! (I've never heard Children of Bodom om the radio, but it was still a single). The next track is "Northern Comfort" and it's got a bouncing and catchy main riff with some great guitar by Laiho as well as a solid screaming verse. The rest of the band backs him nicely as always, but this is a Laiho showcase with keyboards only entering in the background in the chorus. Eventually we reach solo time and it starts off with Laiho and Wirman playing a harmonized solo! This would be pretty cool no matter what, but the speed at which they do it is very impressive indeed! Laiho finishes off solo time by himself with sole more sweet guitar and that was all pretty awesome! They jam out a final verse and chorus to end another well above average tune. The final song on the album is "Kissing The Shadows" and Laiho leads the way with a cool opening before they settle into the verse which has another pretty great guitar riff by Laiho. Wirman adds some super catchy keyboards to the mix and things sound pretty awesome! Laiho holds some nice long screams in the chorus and his flashes of fast guitar throughout the song are great. The set-up to solo time is nicely done and then Laiho takes it away with a phenomenal guitar solo. Wirman follows with an absolutely amazing keyboard solo, and then they do it all again! Another awesome guitar solo, another awesome keyboard solo, and then they harmonize for a truly fantastic finish to what might be one of the best combined solos i've ever heard! It goes all the way to the end of the song and words could never do justice to all that amazing music, it's the best possible way to end an album!

That is the end of "Follow The Reaper" and I thought it was a pretty awesome album! Children of Bodom continue to sound better and better and it's a high bar on this album with even the "lesser" songs being pretty good. Along with a few really awesome ones this makes for a pretty sweet album! I think it easily surpasses "Hatebreeder' and Children of Bodom have outdone themselves again! They couldn't do it again... could they?