A Review of the 2nd Album by Finnish Metal Band Children of Bodom Called "Hatebreeder"

There are years in a band’s career that are so memorable that they stand out as being the best for that band. Note: sometimes the band's name is abbreviated as COB because the band's name is a little long. This is the case for Finland’s melodic death metal band Children of Bodom. 1999 was the year that the band released their second studio album called Hatebreeder. The question is why is 1999 the best year for this band?

We will also provide a review of the album Hatebreeder. While the album’s title may not be the best, the music in this album is heavy, creative, and highly technical. Let’s see if some American death metal band these days can write an album like this and I know they can’t. In this early period, Children of Bodom was one of the best new and young bands that arrived on the scene and they arrived in a big way!

The reasons have to do with the brilliance of that mentioned 2^nd studio album. They have good bass lines as in the first song "Warheart," the riffs are catchy and thundering, and they use classically influenced death metal in this early period. You can hear it in the interludes in this first song by Alexi Laiho.

The second song called "Silent Night, Bodom Night" lyrically makes reference to the horrific crime committed in Lake Bodom many, many years ago. This is a murder case that is not solved as of yet. It is a very philosophical question to ask about why a certain year was so great for a band. Children of Bodom were one of the first bands that I heard at the time that combined death metal with neoclassical shred elements.

However, the 4^th song "Bed of Razors" may be the best song in the album. It has a dark, spooky atmosphere with the cymbals touching the song. It is a song with one of the best riffs that the band has written. "Towards Dead End" starts again with classically influenced interludes as we enter the best parts of the album that are to come! The song is about someone that feels like they are really alone. No matter where they run to, anxiety grips their minds and bodies as their dreams have been shattered. Another reason why 1999 was the best year for Children of Bodom is because of their impressive use of the keyboards to create an atmosphere filled with Castlevania style musical parts! However, one way that this band could be even better is to clean up their lyrical themes a bit but in the death metal genre, often times bands focus on themes such as despair, depression, loss, or sorrow.

"Wrath Within" is a really fast, furious song that many thrash metal bands would be proud of! The guitar stops briefly as Alexi’s rough voice takes over and the drums are impressive! There actually is a song on this album called Children of Bodom and this melodic song makes reference to the spirits of the children that were killed and these spirits are trying to take their revenge out on others.

The bottom line is that in 1999, Children of Bodom had made a sort of “new” style of death metal enjoyable for fans and they showed that they could play very well with other metal bands. Although Follow the Reaper also has its catchy moments as well, it is not as good as this album. This 2^nd album may be the band’s best effort to date.

If there is a weakness or a con for this band even at this time in their career, it would be that their album covers always have the same concept or theme on them. The band has an obvious fascination with the Grim Reaper. But other than that, what you hear on this album is some pretty awesome neoclassical death metal combined with sometimes super-fast guitar leads.

We would be doing this band a major disservice if we did not mention the greatness of the song called "Black Widow." The song starts out in a creepy fashion with the sound of an ominous wind blowing and then then Alexi Laiho shouts the word “right.” There is a very creative interlude in the middle section of this song followed by an ending that features fast, creative guitar work that has a classical style ending, hence that’s why Children of Bodom started as a neoclassical death metal band.

The strongest songs in the album Hatebreeder are several and they include songs 4 through 8 including the mentioned Black Widow. Follow the Reaper is basically the last album by Children of Bodom in this neoclassical death metal style as they would incorporate more groove elements in their death metal music going forward.