Children Of Bodom
Trashed, Lost & Strungout - EP

As I find myself reviewing this effort by Children Of Bodom from 2005, I reflect on one point. What is it about? Not a CD, because there are images besides the audio tracks, not a DVD because it's too short to be considered as such, perhaps an EP, because it's short, but it's not a vinyl... so I'll just call it a single, attracting curses from some and perplexities from others. However, if in the review of "Chaos Ridden Years" I didn't talk about the special contents of the DVD (so as not to bore you), in the review of this... we said... single, I will talk about everything. (boring you).

"Trashed, Lost & Strungout" is the title of the first video we are offered; shot in some sort of hangar, it presents novelties compared to previous CoB videos. Those who have already seen the Finnish band's videos know what I'm talking about: the confused atmospheres that dominated in "Needled 24/7" or "Downfall" are no more, but the scene is wide, clear, and conveys a very accentuated sense of "wetness." New are also the sudden changes in shots, which hit all five musicians without staying fixed on frontman Alexi Laiho, to whom, of course, most of the shots are dedicated. To highlight is the absence of a "parallel story" as happened for the videos "Ev'rytime I Die" or "Needled 24/7" or as will be seen in the video of "Are You Dead Yet?".

Next, we find an interview with Andrew W. K. (the jazz pianist famous for composing the soundtrack of the film "Jackass" and a friend of Laiho), who appears in front of the fixed camera with the air of someone who has just finished snorting a line.

Then come the audio tracks. "Bed Of Nails" and "She Is Beautiful" covers from the aforementioned AWK, then "Knuckleduster" a nice track with a strange title (in Italian it's "cazzottiera") and finally a remix of "Angels Don't Kill".

Then we find the reason why a person decides to buy this single: "Trashed & Lost In Helsinki (Video Footage Of Cob's Night Out)": simply brilliant, this video is based on a fictitious story that however leads back to a real episode: the Children find out all their instruments have been stolen (the story mocks the theft suffered by Laiho in 2002 when his personalized Jackson was stolen while they were sleeping). So, they go to their agent and ask for money. Once they obtain this money, they go to a supermarket and come out with bags, obviously full of alcohol... thus begins a tour through all the characteristic places of the CoB (the gem of visiting Lake Bodom is a must-see). For the rest, it's a hilarious story where they start getting drunk in the morning, compose twenty songs in the afternoon, and continue going out in the evening... truly hilarious!