Children of Bodom occupy an interesting place in metal: namely, Finland. See, Sweden's got its Death Metal and Norway has its Black Metal, but what does Finland have? HIM? Apocalyptica? Hanoi Rocks?Sure, Finland has its own Metal scene, but nothing quite so overarching as an entire genre to its name like its Scandinavian brothers do.
So what do these Bodomian (Bodomish? Bodomite?) Children do? They create their own genre. Call it "sauna metal." Or don't. There really isn't anything about this that classifies as "sauna-ish," I just wanted to say that. I've been waiting all day.
Clearly influenced by Death, Black, Power, and Thrash, Children of Bodom prefer to just be called "Metal," and that's okay. Sounding like the heavy groove-based Thrash of Pantera and Lamb of God ("Blooddrunk," "LoBodomy") mixed with the choral-bell synthesizer sound of 70s horror movies (like Suspiria, The Exorcist, and Halloween), Blooddrunk is a great album, full of understated melody (most - if not all - is carried by the guitars and keyboards and not by the growly-scream vocals) and shredding guitar solos (are people these days writing with Guitar Hero in mind?).
At their most epic, COB can sound like Dimmu Borgir ("LoBodomy") and on the other end, as mentioned before, like Pantera and Lamb of God. "Tie My Rope," starts off like the boss music for a Mega Man game mixed with the Industrial throb 
of Nine Inch Nails before the Hardcore gang-vocals start at the end of each verse. In fact, a lot of the guitar solos on the record sound like the MIDI-fied Metal of the early 90s Super Nintendo game Rock And Roll Racing, but as that was a favorite game of mine, I'm not really complaining.
of Nine Inch Nails before the Hardcore gang-vocals start at the end of each verse. In fact, a lot of the guitar solos on the record sound like the MIDI-fied Metal of the early 90s Super Nintendo game Rock And Roll Racing, but as that was a favorite game of mine, I'm not really complaining."Roadkill Morning" (a song about waking up and feeling like you've been run over by a truck) Thrashes like crazy before a Hardcore floor-punching breakdown played by Dimmu Borgir with the guttural roars of Killing Joke in the chorus before nearly a minute of soloing (in a 3 1/2 minute song). And the last track, a cover of "Ghost Riders in the Sky," comes across as a Viking call-to-arms. When the chorus hits, it's not hard to imagine a Great Hall filled with large, bearded men drinking beer or mead, singing along, and getting almost as much in their mouths as they are on themselves and each other.
One more thing must be mentioned, though, and that's this:
Apparently, some astute blogger noticed that COB frontman Alexi Laiho looks an awful lot like Avril Lavigne, and I'm not one to disagree. And with COB's history of covering songs by teen pop-tarts ("Hit Me Baby One More Time"), I wonder how long it will be before we see Children of Bodom's metalified cover of "Girlfriend"?
=james
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