Children of Bodom – Halo Of Blood (2013)

Finally returning to their days of glory, today we have Children of Bodom and their most cohesive release since “Hate Crew Deathroll”. With “Halo of Blood” the band returns to their playful and skillful entertaining music that is both technically proficient and quite catchy. Having tanked their last 3 releases, it is quite refreshing to hear the band going a bit back to their roots and re-capturing the elements that made them the successful band they are now.

With the opener “Waste of Skin”, the band instantly delivers their signature CoB sound with catchy keyboards and excellent lead guitars. Once the rhythmic guitars come in, the song already hooked you because of its catchiness. Alexi Laiho’s solos are as good as in the past, and the overall musical experience greatly brought us memories of when we first listened to the band in the past.

With a bit of a Dissection flair, “Halo of Blood” starts very powerfully and it slowly morphs into a classic catchy tune with very solid guitar work and excellent drumming. The vocals are so-so through the release, but they still fit the music. The excellent “Scream for Silence” and “Transference” are two other classic CoB songs that will surely go to the band’s repertoire of super catchy hit songs. For those of us looking for more guitar acrobatics and catchy riffs, “Bodom Blue Moon” is one of the best tracks in the release due to its ferocity and musical intricacies.

As the hits keep piling up, “Dead Man’s Hand On You” is one of the most interesting songs in this release since it has a very mellow ballad-esque nature to it when compared to the previous songs. Janne Warman’s keyboards are excellent in this song, and the change of tempo nicely breaks up the flow of the album. This song has a slight Hypocrisy-esque vibe from their slower songs; maybe since Peter Tägtgren handled the production the band got this result.

Closing the release with the very solid “Damaged Beyond Repair” and “One Bottle And A Knee Deep”, the band completely convinced us with this excellent release. Having lost faith in them over the years, it is quite refreshing to enjoy this excellent release and have the musical acrobatics of the band back in a very catchy context. If you are a fan of the band’s earlier stuff, you will certainly love this album, so go out and pick out a copy when it comes out.

Label: Nuclear Blast Records

Release: June 11th, 2013

Genre: Melodic Extreme Metal / Deathcore

Country: Finland