When I was a teenager, I honestly believed that there was no
\nsuch thing as too much heavy metal. The more I could get my hands
\non, the better. As I got older, not only did I formulate tastes for
\ncertain kinds of metal, but my musical palate widened, and metal
\nkind of got pushed to the “sweets” portion – you know, only to be
\nenjoyed as an occasional treat.<\/p>\n
These days, you wouldn’t believe the amount of new metal CDs I
\nhave in the “incoming” basket of the Pierce Memorial Archives. It’s
\nscary, really; I honestly think I could to three reviews of metal
\nacts a day for two weeks, and probably just be caught up with the
\ngrowing stack.<\/p>\n
A lot of what we get to review is death metal – a genre I
\nhonestly can’t say I’ve developed a taste for, but I can appreciate
\na job well done when I hear it. I guess I should be scared of a lot
\nof the death metal I listen to – if only I could decipher whatever
\nthe hell they’re screaming about. It kind of makes me think my
\nthree-year-old is trying to do the same deciphering trick with
\nme.<\/p>\n
One such band that falls under the “please provide the lyric
\nsheet” category is Finland’s Children Of Bodom, whose latest
\nrelease
\nHatebreeder<\/i> is supposed to capture the feel of classic death
\nmetal. I won’t say if that’s true or not, but while the disc is
\ntrying at times, there are a few moments of brightness.<\/p>\n
More often than not, I heard classical music influences in the
\nwork of guitarist\/vocalist Alexi Laiho, guitarist Ale Kuoppala and
\nkeyboardist Janne Wirman. There are even a few moments where I’d
\nswear the band was influenced partially by Yngwie J. Malmsteen –
\nfrankly, not a bad place to learn your licks from. To hear musical
\ntechnicality like that shows the skeptics that there is often more
\nthan the caffiene-overdose rhythms and the gloom-and-doom vocal
\nprophesies.<\/p>\n
Of the remaining band members, drummer Jaska Raatikainen
\nimpressed with the clean-sounding thrashing he gave his kit. It’s
\none thing to smash the drums into oblivion; it’s another to make
\neach hit heard loud and clear. Bassist Henkka Seppala is too often
\nhidden in the mix; I would have liked to have heard him brought out
\nto the forefront more often.<\/p>\n
As for the music – well, if you’re looking for lyrical insights,
\ndon’t come running to me, ’cause the only word I made out was
\n“fuck” and a few of its variants. (I have an advance release copy
\nof the disc; I don’t know if the official release has lyrics in the
\nliner notes.) Musically, there’s no faulting Children Of Bodom, for
\ntheir sound is incredibly clean.<\/p>\n
The problem comes down to excitement – namely, when I listen to
\nHatebreeder<\/i>, does something go off in my head that sets this
\nalbum apart from the rest of the genre? And that, sadly, is where
\nthe album eventually falls flat. Tracks like “Warheart,” “Bed Of
\nRazors” and “Black Widow” might be decent enough songs, but I don’t
\nget the feeling that I’m listening to something special.<\/p>\n
\nHatebreeder<\/i> is a very short album, clocking in at under 40
\nminutes, and I’m sure that if you’re into the death metal scene,
\nyou’ll find something in this album that I might have missed. But
\nfor the average headbanger, even after a few listens to
\nHatebreeder<\/i>, you might wonder what all the hype is
\nabout.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":27852,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[6950],"rating":[5614],"class_list":["post-39239","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-children-of-bodom","rating-rating-c-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/39239","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39239"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/39239\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27852"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39239"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39239"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=39239"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=39239"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}