Children of Bodom - Review of the Album Hate Crew Deathroll

Hate Crew Deathroll songs list

1. Needled 24/7
2. Sixpounder
3. Chokehold (Cocked ‘n’ Loaded)
4. Bodom Beach Terror
5. Angels Don’t Kill
6. Triple Corpse Hammerblow
7. You’re Better Off Dead
8. Lil’ Bloodred Ridin’ Hood
9. Hate Crew Deathroll

Finnish melodic death metal band Children of Bodom has been around a pretty long time and they have evolved as a band changing their musical style slightly since the late 1990’s and early 2000’s. Their 4^th studio album is called Hate crew Deathroll and it is a departure from their first three albums. With this album, we can hear a faster, hard-hitting and more thrash metal style especially with the first two songs Needled 24/7 and Sixpounder. Although Children of Bodom is normally classified as a melodic death metal band, they have thrash metal elements in their music too. This would be the last album to have Alexander Kuoppala as the other guitarist. The riffs are chunkier and there is a vocal chant of “pounder” in the song Sixpounder. There are also more instances of rough vocal shouts, a quality that we did not really see especially on the band’s first two albums.

The two most outstanding songs on this album are "Bodom Beach Terror" and "Angels Don’t Kill." The slower song "Angels Don’t Kill" is one of the well-written songs in the band’s career and it shows some of Alexi Laiho’s best rough vocal performances. The song is about someone who has so much pain in their heart that they feel like they are slowly being left to die. Even in this song, you hear the atmospheric sound that can send chills through your body because it is a VERY intense album musically. One constant lyrical theme in this album is the emotions of anger and aggression. The album tries to convey the message of what can happen if these emotions are left unchecked. I could not bring myself to listen to this album a lot of times because it was too intense. But this band should be covered because of their immense talent especially in the melodic death metal genre. Is Children of Bodom the best melodic death metal band in the genre? No they are not but they are certainly not short on talent. The strongest songs other than the two mentioned earlier are the title track, Needled 24/7, and Sixpounder. I really think that Children of Bodom are better suited to use the neoclassical style that was present on their first three albums. “Sixpounder” is one of the more intense songs with an interlude followed by Alexi’s vocals.

Overall, this album is pretty good even for Children of Bodom but they have done a better job especially with the album Are You Dead Yet? If you are just starting to get into this band, first check out their first two albums before you listen to this one.

Is this album better than what would come later? It is a tough call but Relentless Reckless Forever is not too bad either and the song "Northpole Throwdown" may be better than any song on this album but again it is a subjective, tough call.

Author’s note: as of 2021, this album review is dedicated in loving memory of the one and only Alexi Laiho (1979-2020) who departed from this world much too soon. He will be dearly missed. We will especially miss the beginning of the song "Angels Kill" which Alexi was responsible for writing.