Bonus tracks:
Party All the Time
(Eddie Murphy cover on super deluxe and Japan edition)
Angels Don't Kill (Live at Bloodstock
on Japan, US, Canada & iTunes edition)
Every Time I Die (Live at Bloodstock
on Japan, US, Canada & iTunes edition)
DVD bonuses:
- Was It Worth It? [Music Video]
- Making of "Was It Worth It?
- Angels Don't Kill - Live at Bloodstock
- Everytime I Die - Live at Bloodstock
- The Rockhouse Method With Alexi Laiho - DVD Trailer
- The Rockhouse Method With Alexi Laiho - Instructional DVD Excerpt
Band:
Alexi Laiho (vocals, lead guitar)
Roope Latvala (rhythm guitar)
Jaska Raatikainen (drums)
Henkka Seppälä (bass guitar)
Janne Wirman (keyboards, synthesizer)
Discography:
Something Wild (1997)
Hatebreeder (1999)
Follow The Reaper (2000)
Hate Crew Deathroll (2003)
Are You Dead Yet? (2005)
Blooddrunk (2008)
Guests:
Info
Produced by Matt Hyde
Arranged by Children of Bodom
Mastered by Tom Baker at Precision Mastering, USA, October 2010
Released 8/3-2011
Reviewed 18/3-2011
Links:
cobhc.com
myspace
relentlessrecklessforever.com
last fm
spinefarm
It's been more than ten years since I started to listen to Children of Bodom and what was then a small band that was big in Finland has now become a big band more or less everywhere. They can be seen and heard pretty much wherever you turn and to my knowledge a death metal album has probably never come with such anticipation. Or been awaited by so many. Just to make clear how big this band has become, here are some numbers that can stunn anyone that has heard the band: The last three albums have all topped the Finnish charts. Seven of their singles have topped the Finnish single charts. The last album peaked at seventh on the American Bilboard, tenth in Germany and twelfth in Japan. All of their albums have at least a gold selling status by the International record organization IFPI, one of them have even reached platina. And that's just a few facts. The question now is if 'Relentless Reckless Forever' have the capacity to live up to these figures. Is this another gold album?
Well, it definitely starts good. Really heavy and really massive is how the band beats out the introducing track Not My Funeral, which could scare of a pack of hungry wolfs with their tanker heavy guitar riffs. Thundering drums batter you like a pneumatic drill going through a gypsum board, and this makes the album even heavier. And on the bass guitar the band has the humble Henka Seppälä (aka Blacksmith) and when he hammer the strings along with the guitars and drums in this song, Children of Bodom ends up heavier than anything you can imagine. Even heavier than the noises of the pagan god Thor if he were to smith oil tankers on a gigantic anvil with his hammer. In other words, we have once again been given a quicksilver heavy album from Children of Bodom. But is it any good then? Shut the f**k up, I was just getting to that!
'Relentless Reckless Forever' is quite obviously more worked through than 'Blooddrunk'. This time it's about more than just showing off virtuosic guitar skills and being very heavy. This album have that but it's just as much about taking genius musical decisions, making well planned and well executed melodies and of course that feeling of getting your raw energy out, which is something that only Children of Bodom can achieve. Is there any other band in the world you can play on the highest volume and just scream along with? And feel happy! That would be Leonard Coen then of course...
This really is an amazing Children of Bodom album. And a really amazing album, not only for the bias Children of Bodom lover. Because what Bodom have don with this album is to release an album that last for only 36 minutes and contains only nine songs, but where every song and every minute feels really well worked at and well chosen. It doesn't feel at all like some albums where bands make an hour of music to fill up for three or four songs that actually are good. Here the guitars shrieks like wolfs howling towards the moon. The keyboards makes melodies stronger than Taisun (the strongest crane in the world, which can lift over 20 000 tons) and the flow in the music is cleaner than a sterilised baby. The always so entertaining Alexi Laiho almost sounds somewhat old in the voice, but even though his voice is wheezing a bit he still has a pure power in his voice that can tame the wind.
My guess is that Children of Bodom, as always, will raise many sorts of feelings with 'Relentless Reckless Forever'. And it would be somewhat strange otherwise, I think. What I think is most likely are feelings like euphoria and pure energy bursts and total happiness in the minds of the already extatic fans. And surely they will get some new ones as well. They deserve that with this album. This might be the album of the year, at least not far from it in my book. 'Relentless Reckless Forever' is an album that just is completely amazing!
HHHHHHH
