#198 Children of Bodom - Follow the Reaper

I've never listened to Children of Bodom before. As I say with many of the bands I've never actually listened to before, I should probably do so, for my own good. Representing a massive gap in my knowledge, Children of Bodom were probably one such neglected band that I should have listened to quite soon, considering just how well known they are. Fortunately, as I write out this ponderous intro-paragraph, that's what I've been doing.

If you'd asked me not so very long ago what Children of Bodom sounded like, I'd have probably answered along the lines of "ehh... melodic-death metal kind of stuff?" As it turns out, I wasn't too far off. This album in particular seems to sit somewhere between melodic death metal and power metal, with fairly caustic, but at the same time tuneful, harsh vocals, a melodeath staple, and indeed quite a heavy guitar tone, but also sparkling, dancing keyboard playing, which gives the music a very melodic, uplifting and almost fairytale sound in places, which I'd imagine is where the power-metal element comes in. The synth itself has quite a classical feel in places, and is certainly indicative of quite a lot of dexterity on the keyboard player's part. At times, it also has something of a folk-influenced sound, which was an interesting twist upon what I was expecting. What emerges when these elements are combined is undeniably very accessible, and highly-polished, but certainly isn't bad - It's enjoyable and catchy, and is certainly honest-to-goodness metal. The synth tends to lead the music, with the guitar work taking a back-seat for the most part - not subdued so much as simply allowing the synth to vend all of the "catchy bits" for a good two-thirds of the time.

When the lead guitar does take it's place in the spotlight, it's very adequate, and at times impressive - there is a reasonable collection of both lead-sections and solos - modern sounding, with pristine production and smoothness, as if the very music itself was crafted from porcelain, but effective nonetheless - generally I enjoy guitar work with a bit of a rough-edge, and that goes for music in general too, when it comes to it, but I find the sharpness of this album quite unobtrusive, and enjoyable. The riffs, too, have a degree of substance, and there are a few which are very enjoyable in their own right, without relying on the syrupy synth coating which everything has - My knowledge of melodic death metal, and, for that matter, power metal, isn't quite up to scratch at times, so I often don't know what sounds "normal" for a genre, but the riffs in this album seem to bring into play traditional metal and thrash-influences, and do so often, with the former introducing some subtle, almost rock-like sections tucked in beneath the synth and lead-work, and the latter making itself felt when the songs thunder along, with power-chord driven, galloping riffs often somewhat reminiscent of modern thrash.

This is roughly what I was expecting, when I set out to listen to the band - but on the whole I've enjoyed it more than I suspected I might - I don't tend to be a melodic death metal fan, but this was a pleasant listen, and was certainly easier to listen to, and more memorable, than some of the things which I consider myself to love. If music could be bottled, this should be given to scene-kids, and labeled "The antidote to metalcore".

I'm giving this a 7/10.

Links:
Children of Bodom Official Site
Children of Bodom on Facebook
Children of Bodom on Myspace
Children of Bodom on Metal Archives

#197 Ketzer - Endzeit Metropolis

Ketzer are a promising German black-thrash band which I've been following for quite a while. When I heard that they were doing a new album, really got my attention. I told myself that I'd not review the album until I'd bought a copy. I've not been able to do so yet, so I've decided to just review the album anyway - about six months after it's release. Better late than never, perhaps.

I was very impressed when I first listened to "Satan's Boundaries Unchained", the band's first album. I'm pleased, to say the least, that this album seems to be equally inspired and well-made. The raw aggression of the first album, which was one of it's most prominent features, is definitely still present, but is refined - more grandiose and more ambitions - The first album is composed mainly of take-no-prisoners black-thrash belters, and while this album has many too, it's also got a touch more scale. It seems that now, the band aren't afraid to stand back from the neck-breaking tempo occasionally and embellish their music with atmosphere, which, personally, I think works really well, giving the sophomore album a sense of identity and development - You also really get the feeling from the tracks that the band have really found their sound on this album - it sounds in a way more confident for lack of a better word. It's often said that a band's second album can often be a problem-child, but the path which Ketzer have taken on Endzeit Metropolis has gone a long way to ensuring that it has as much identity and strength oozing from it as their first.

Endzeit Metropolis seems to be a darker record than the previous one, and at the very least an equally angry one, too; More enveloping, evil and in many places brooding - Songs like "The Fever's Tide" really harness the black-metal influence to great effect. I've always enjoyed tremolos, and Ketzer use them excellently, with evil, often innovative sounds conjured by their usage. I get the impression that the band have developed and improved on a technical level since their last album too, and while Satan's Boundaries was fast, and already impressively technical, this album is even more so. The production works well too - The drums sound like they have real substance, and on top of the drummers enjoyable style, the thickness of their sound really drives the music along nicely, and the strength of the percussion renders the album even more energetic sounding than it is in it's own right. The production overall is a little more polished than Satan's Boundaries, but in a good way - the edges are still rough, as they should be, but on the whole, the album sounds very coherent - well produced, well-written, and razor-sharp, the way black-thrash was meant to be.

Anyone who enjoys black-thrash will enjoy Ketzer's material - I can promise that. The band are hugely underrated, and on the strength of a release like this, their name should be on everyone's lips. I hope this review can count as me doing my part to make it so.

This is a 9/10. Listen to this band.

Links:
Ketzer Official Site
Ketzer on Facebook
Ketzer on Myspace
Ketzer on Metal Archives

#196 Sinister - Diabolical Summoning

When a death-metal band hails from The Netherlands, it's usually a fairly consistent assurance that they'll be pretty damn good at what they do. As such, it came to me as no surprise that Sinister have many albums which are regarded as firm classics. Having not listened to the band much before, I decided it'd be good for my musical health to listen to a few albums, starting, arbitrarily, with "Diabolical Summoning", which I shall also review.

The Diabolical Summoning album was released in the golden-age of death-metal, and the production is certainly a near-perfect hallmark of this, giving the album a very quintessential sound, albeit an improvement on that which many bands had at the time. In this album, the bass is prominent, the drums are profound but not clicky, and the guitars have that really enjoyable heavy-tone, with an almost occult murkiness very fitting of the albums themes. Of course, production pales in significance to the music to which it has been applied, and from the first track of the album, I was confident that I'd gotten a hold of some death-metal which doesn't disappoint. Fiercely energetic, with thunderous percussion, occasional blast-beats, and an all round sense of musical prowess, the album really is an intense affair. The vocals, too, are guttural at just about the right level for my enjoyment - not too crazed, but certainly not weak, either. The aspect which caught my attention the most, however, is the fact that this album is an absolute monster in the riff department, with meaty, memorable chunks of guitar-work sounding like the roar of infernal engines - Just the right degree of thrash, a slightly groovy feel at times, and ultimately, a guitar tone which really helps the riffs hit home.

I've heard a saying that a death-metal album is only "supposed" to last for about thirty-minutes. If this is true, this album certainly conforms to the standard - but it doesn't rush past all to quickly - it's definitely an album with enough going on within it musically to feel longer than it's literal length, which I think says something for it's quality - It's an album on which almost every song is solid-as-a-rock, which certainly adds to it - the artwork, completeness, everything, really work to make the album very close to the archetypal form of "album". Certainly, with a couple more listens, I could see an album like this becoming one of my favorite death-metal albums. Perhaps it doesn't have a strongly distinct style in-and-of itself, away from the death-metal norm of the time, but I'll certainly herald the album as an extremely well-written traditional death-metal piece - which is definitely what counts. In all honesty, I've not listened to many death-metal albums which felt quite so complete. I've not listened to a huge amount of death-metal at all, in fact, but even a newcomer to the genre like myself can see the promise of this record.

I think I really picked the right album to first discover Sinister with, on this one, and while I discover many, many bands simply by reviewing them, I get the feeling that I actually will continue listening to them on a committed level afterwards. I'm thoroughly impressed.

This is easily an 8/10.

Links:
Sinister on Facebook
Sinister on Myspace
Sinister on Metal Archives