CHILDREN OF BODOM — Halo of Blood (review)

CHILDREN OF BODOM — Halo of Blood album cover Album · 2013 · Melodic Death Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
4.5/5 ·
Kev Rowland
I own pretty much every COB album, and even have a copy of one of the Inearthed sets in my collection, but the question that I have been asking myself for quite some time is are they still any good? Ask any self respecting metal journalist and he will tell you that COB are the best thing ever to come out of Scandanavia, and certainly they have sold a lot of records. But so has Justin Bieber so what does that prove? To me the last really good COB album was ‘Hate Crew Deathroll’, which featured the awesome “Needled 24 7”, and that since then it hasn’t all been as good as it might have been. Interesting to see that on MMA the first five albums get a 4* rating, yet the last two get 2 ½ and 3 respectively. So, it was with more than a little trepidation that I listened to this for the first time.

Even before putting it on the player I had the impression that we might be in for something a little different to recent years as while it has been recorded and produced by the band themselves, they have also brought in Peter Tägtgren (Hypocrisy, Pain). Peter is one of the top producers of this style of music, plus of course he also produced “Follow The Reaper’ which is certainly one of their finest works. I don’t know just how much impact he has had on the band in terms of musical performance and songwriting, but what I do know is that this is easily their best album for ten years. There is an anger and passion in the music and in Alex’s singing, while keyboard player Janne Wirman makes his presence felt with possibly his finest ever performance.

If you want melodic death metal played by the absolute masters of the scene then it just doesn’t get any better than this. Henkka and Jaske nail the bottom end, while Roope either links directly with Alex or provides the backing for him to go off and solo. There are times when it is still a bit too melodic and controlled for my liking, as I would prefer it to be even more raw and off the leash, but there is no doubt that these guys are back with an absolute vengeance. www.nuclearblast.de
Share this review
more

Review Comments

Post a public comment below | Send private message to the reviewer
Please login to post a shout
Kev Rowland wrote:
more than 2 years ago
It was tongue in cheek - hence the Bieber reference that followed...

UMUR wrote:
more than 2 years ago
"Ask any self respecting metal journalist and he will tell you that COB are the best thing ever to come out of Scandanavia"...

No way in hell!!! But to each his own I guess :-)

Review Index

Member Zone

Username:
Password:
Stay signed in

Metal Subgenres

Artists Alpha-index

MMA TOP 5 Metal ALBUMS

Rating by members, ranked by custom algorithm
Albums with 30 ratings and more
Master of Puppets Thrash Metal
METALLICA
Buy this album from our partners
Paranoid Heavy Metal
BLACK SABBATH
Buy this album from our partners
Moving Pictures Hard Rock
RUSH
Buy this album from our partners
Powerslave NWoBHM
IRON MAIDEN
Buy this album from our partners
Rising Heavy Metal
RAINBOW
Buy this album from our partners

New Metal Artists

New Metal Releases

Hin helga kvöl Atmospheric Sludge Metal
SÓLSTAFIR
Buy this album from MMA partners
The Cycles of Suffering Black Metal
BURIAL OATH
Buy this album from MMA partners
The Suns of Perdition - Chapter IV: To Shadow Zion Black Metal
PANZERFAUST
Buy this album from MMA partners
Facilis Descensus Averno Death Metal
SAEVUS FINIS
Buy this album from MMA partners
Merciless Crossover Thrash
BODY COUNT
Buy this album from MMA partners
More new releases

New Metal Online Videos

DAWN OF REVENGE - Sanctuary [official music video]
DAWN OF REVENGE
Bosh66· 6 days ago
DAWN OF REVENGE - Farewell [official music video]
DAWN OF REVENGE
Bosh66· 6 days ago
DAWN OF REVENGE - Curtain of Death - [official music video]
DAWN OF REVENGE
Bosh66· 6 days ago
DAWN OF REVENGE - Vengeance [official music video]
DAWN OF REVENGE
Bosh66· 6 days ago
DAWN OF REVENGE - I Need You [official music video]
DAWN OF REVENGE
Bosh66· 6 days ago
More videos

New MMA Metal Forum Topics

More in the forums

New Site interactions

More...

Latest Metal News

members-submitted

More in the forums

Social Media

Follow us
Follow us on Twitter Become a Facebook fan RSS Feed