Artist: Children of Bodom Album: Follow the Reaper

Year: 2000
Duration: 46:05

Children of Bodom’s Follow the Reaper Album: A Fiery Blend of Heavy Metal and Melodic Death Metal

When it comes to heavy metal and melodic death metal, Children of Bodom (COB) is a name that resonates with most metal enthusiasts. Founded in 1993 in Espoo, Finland, the band has released 10 studio albums throughout its illustrious career. In this review, I will be focusing on their third studio album, Follow the Reaper, which was released on October 30, 2000, by Spinefarm Records. I will touch on the band's music style, the standout tracks, and the album's overall strengths and weaknesses.

COB's music fuses different metal genres, including heavy metal, melodic death metal, power metal, and thrash metal. Follow the Reaper follows the same pattern, but with more inclination towards melodic death metal. The album features plenty of shredding guitar riffs and aggressive drumming, also singing both clean and harsh vocals. The album opens with Follow the Reaper, a track with the band's signature style – aggressive guitar riffs with a catchy melody. The iconic Alexi Laiho's guitar solo towards the end of the song, a standard in all of their studio albums.

Everytime I Die, the album's second track, is also another personal favorite for many COB fans. The song blends catchy melodies with heavy riffs and contains some of Laiho's best guitar solos. It also contains some of the most memorable lyrics on the album. Hate Me! the third track has become a melodic death metal classic. Blasting riffs backed with melodic vocal lines work well to create the atmosphere for the song's harsher segments. It has memorable lyrics and has become a regular in the band's concert setlists.

The album benefits from its innovative riffs and solos, with perhaps the most creative guitar work on the album present on Kissing the Shadows, a song with the perfect blend of aggression and melody. The track stands out for the instrumental part, which creates a haunting atmosphere; the guitar style, tone, and the melody gives an overall gripping vibe.

However, Follow the Reaper isn't perfect. The album starts strong, but it gets weaker as one goes down the tracklist. There is a lack of variation in tempo, and some tracks sound repetitive. Northern Comfort, the album's possible weak spot, is a gloomy track that feels out of place with the overall upbeat mood of the album.

Overall, Follow the Reaper is a great example of COB's music style. The album perfectly articulates what made COB stand out in their time. With the perfect blend of aggression and melody, Follow the Reaper remains a favorite among metal fans. Though Follow the Reaper is not without its flaws, it continues to be an influential album in the melodic death metal genre. COB's Follow the Reaper album gets an 8 out of 10 from a critical standpoint.