### Children Of Bodom: Hate crew deathroll

#### 06/10/11 || Smalley

Me and Children Of Bodom had quite the whirlwind romance back in college, and an equally whirlwind break-up; I borrowed all of their CDs from a metalhead friend of mine, and loved most of ‘em for a few months (“Are you dead yet?” has always been weak and you know it), but after that came a dramatic drop in my ability to tolerate their divisive, highly niche-y style, from which there has been no recovery yet, and I don’t imagine there ever will be.

The problem is, their hyperactive, brat-vocals laden, cheesy keyboards-infused sound has always been goofy, but the songwriting on the first 3 records restrains itself from fully embracing that basic trashiness, and thus, isn’t as enjoyable for me as it once was. Fortunately, by the time “Hate crew deathroll” came out in ’03, Bodom had dropped most of the neo-classical touches and Mozart solos of old, but also hadn’t devolved yet into the wannabe “aggressive”, pathetically stagnant sound of “Blooddrunk” and the like, resulting in “Deathroll” being a piece of cheap, nutritional value-less, heavy metal junk food right down to the stupid song titles; it isn’t anywhere near being good for you, and won’t increase your brain cells or whatever like a Tool album would (haters to the left, please), but boy, is it ever so tasty going down.

“Needled 24/7” sets the tone right off the bat with its brattier-than-ever vocals, video game keyboards, and gratuitous, wannabe-Malmsteen soloing. There are no real attempts here at big songwriting ideas, just raw, super-speedy aggression pushing the train forward, but the stuff’s still well-paced and catchy as hell, and the riffs actually have bite to ‘em, unlike the spinning-their-wheels guitar work on every record Bodom’s done since. From there, “Sixpounder” & “Chokehold” ease the tempo back for slightly slower, more pounding riffs, though they ultimately aren’t as memorably infectious as “Needled” was. Still decent, but coulda been better.

Fortunately, “Bodom beach terror” has a more solid groove, some very nice rhythm guitar/keyboard synergy, some killer drum fills by Jaska, and a catchy-as-hell chorus, so all is forgiven here. “Angels don’t kill” has a appealingly campy, Vincent Price-horror vibe to it (reinforced by an opening dialogue sample from American Psycho), with some nice, unexpectedly chill lead guitar sections, and the upbeat “Triple corpse hammerblow” (heart-warming name, innit it?) keeps “deathroll” going good. Not going strong , mind you, just good.

After that, I have no real complaints for “You’re better off dead”, “Lil’ bloodred ridin’ hood”, or the closing title track, as they all serve up more of that catchy, aggressive camp that defines this album. Production-wise, Anssi Kippo does a good job of giving every instrument the right tone, keeping them all in balance with one another, even the oft-forgotten bass: the keyboards have that great melodramatic, cheesy edge, the rhythm guitar tone fits Alexander Kuoppala’s shred-heavy playing style, the lead guitar sound is very in your face, and I can keep good track of where the bass ‘n drums are in the mix. Good work indeed.

And, while this one relies heavily on those “Flight of the bumblebee”-twitchy solos to drive things forward, and most of ‘em are pure “hey ma, look at me!” show-off (so I understand their frequency annoying others), it’s still fucken undeniable how awesome a guitarist Alexi is. If only he’d focus more on writing solos that work with the songs instead of outside ‘em, and current Bodom songwriting might actually be worth a damn. MIGHT. Anyway, “Late brew methbowl” won’t make you feel enlightened to the mysteries of the universe or whatever, so it ain’t a great album by any stretch of the imagination, but it is a great guilty pleasure, so let’s drop our pretensions a sec and hear it for some harmless musical junk food for once, pretty please.

- Information
- Released: 2003
- Label: Spinefarm
- Website: www.cobhc.com
- Band
- Alexi Laiho: vocals, lead guitar
- Alexander Kuoppala: rhythm guitar, backing vocals
- Henkka T. Blacksmith: bass, backing vocals
- Janne Warman: keyboards
- Jaska Raatikainen: drums

- Tracklist
- 01. Needled 24/7
- 02. Sixpounder
- 03. Chokehold (Cocked ‘n’ Loaded)
- 04. Bodom Beach Terror
- 05. Angels Don’t Kill
- 06. Triple Corpse Hammerblow
- 07. You’re Better Off Dead
- 08. Lil’ Bloodred Ridin’ Hood
- 09. Hate Crew Deathroll