Children Of Bodom
Halo Of Blood

The Children of Bodom are back! And they've finally done it in the best way possible, with an excellent Melodic Death album in full Bodom style, that is, with power, thrash influences, and a touch of groove. Yes, exactly like that, a true return to their roots, after two not very inspired albums that strayed a bit too far from the style that made them famous ("Blooddrunk" and "Relentless Reckless Forever"). The album I'm about to review is called "Halo of Blood".

The album kicks off with "Waste of Skin," an extremely powerful track, a death-tinged thrash-groove that's truly impactful. And immediately after, we are catapulted into the title track, which is definitely one of the album's highlights, a song that seems to have come straight out of "Something Wild," a genuine death metal hammering, with a black metal aftertaste, supported by a super-fast blast beat for almost the entire duration of the song. According to Alexi's latest statements, it is the fastest song COB has ever written. The album continues with incredibly inspired songs like "Scream for Silence," "Transfereance" (a track with a haunting melody that gets stuck in the listener's head right away), and "Bodom Blue Moon,” another track in perfect COB style that alternates melo-death with thrash-like riffs, all seasoned with keyboard solos intertwined with Laiho's guitar.

You reach the middle of the album without even realizing it, and find another 5 very effective tracks. The super-fast thrash-death-tinged "The Days Are Numbered," the extremely slow "Dead Man's Hand on You" (the slowest song ever written by the Finns) where, for the first time, we hear Laiho sing in a clean voice (bearing some resemblance to Manson), "Damage Beyond Repair" in which the axe duo unleashes shred-style riffs in abundance, we arrive at the rocking and thrashy "All Twisted," and then conclude a solid and varied album with the beautiful "One Bottle and a Knee Deep," a rather dark song characterized by a refrain in full Bodom style, to be sung at the top of one's lungs.

We are faced with an excellent album, which holds up very well against the first three in the Children of Bodom's discography. The whole band appears cohesive and inspired like they haven't been in a long time; finally, the "keyboard-guitar" dialogues that had been somewhat neglected in recent years, and had made them famous, are back. Alexi Laiho is technically more monstrous than ever, but in this case, he doesn't just show off technique for its own sake; everything serves the music.

As mentioned earlier, throughout almost the entire album, black metal atmospheres are palpable (according to the band, Alexi listened to a lot of black metal music during the compositional phase, especially Marduk), particularly in songs like "Halo of Blood," "Scream for Silence," "Transfereance," and "The Days Are Numbered." Even the album cover has a strong black metal aura. The production is excellent, powerful, and quite clear as Bodom has accustomed us, able to highlight every single instrument and allow the listener to appreciate every single note.

In conclusion: welcome back Children of Bodom!