Children Of Bodom - Blooddrunk review
Band: | Children Of Bodom |
Album: | Blooddrunk |
Style: | Extreme power metal |
Release date: | April 09, 2008 |
Guest review by: | Doc G. |
Disc I
01. Hellhounds On My Trail
02. Blooddrunk
03. Lobodomy
04. One Day You Will Cry
05. Smile Pretty For The Devil
06. Tie My Rope
07. Done With Everything, Die For Nothing
08. Banned From Heaven
09. Roadkill Morning
10. Ghostriders In The Sky [Stan Jones cover] [digipak bonus]
11. Lookin' Out My Back Door [CCR cover] [ltd UK edition bonus]
12. Just Dropped In [Kenny Rogers cover] [Japanese bonus]
Disc II [bonus DVD 5.1]
01. Hellhounds On My Trail
02. Blooddrunk
03. Lobodomy
04. One Day You Will Cry
05. Smile Pretty For The Devil
06. Tie My Rope
07. Done With Everything, Die For Nothing
08. Banned From Heaven
09. Roadkill Morning
+ Blooddrunk [video]
+ Making of the Blooddrunk video
+ Photogallery
After the release of the widely hated "Are You Dead Yet?" many fans were left holding their breath wondering if it was perhaps just an off album or if Children Of Bodom had truly started a downwards spiral? Well this was the answer, and it seemed to be in favour of the pessimists.
With this latest effort the band seemed to take a more abrasive approach, making the keyboards less prominent and creating an overall "smaller" sound. While there is probably many people who can appreciate hearing a slightly less keyboard-drenched sound in exchange for some solid riffing, it appears the band has exchanged the keyboard dominant sound for....well, nothing! This album seems also to have a less catchy sound to it, and let's face it, the one thing that made Children Of Bodom very attractive was just how catchy the songs they could write were.. Even the previous album (as bad as it was) had more of this quality to it. Generally the song writing in this album is very anti-climactic, like its 4-5 minutes of build-up and then the song is over. Part of the anti-climactic tendencies this album has could be due to bad arrangements, the tempo changes as well as the vocal/lyrical arrangements sound awkward and severely misplaced most of the time.
While this album is pretty forgettable, saying it is devoid of any interesting points would be a lie. The keyboards shine through in some decent solos like on "Smile Pretty For The Devil", and there are some nice leads scattered throughout the album. Finding these nice leads and solos takes a lot of patience because it entails sitting through 2-3 minutes of incredibly bland song writing. To sum it up, the interesting points of this album are just too few and far between to be judged anything more than mediocre.
As much as I'm sure many of us were hoping, this is definitely not a return to form for the band. Die-hard fans of the band will probably find this enjoyable despite the short-comings of it, while casual listeners will most likely find it lack-luster at best.
Rating breakdown
Performance: | 8 |
Songwriting: | 6 |
Originality: | 7 |
Production: | 8 |
Written by Doc G. | 21.12.2008
Guest review disclaimer:
This is a guest review, which means it does not necessarily represent the point of view of the MS Staff.
This is a guest review, which means it does not necessarily represent the point of view of the MS Staff.
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