Children of Bodom – I Worship Chaos (2015)

After releasing a couple of lukewarm releases, Children of Bodom are back in fully force with the brilliant “I Worship Chaos”. The band mixes their early days intensity and naivety with their more modern elements to deliver a high-octane release that is full of memorable songs and brilliant musicianship.

Opening with the intense “I Hurt”, we get a killer pace set by blistering guitars and very hectic drumming. This track is both fun and precise, keeping the listener headbanging since the first minute. The festive mood continues with the pummeling “My Bodom”, a track that increases in tempo and creativity as it progresses, leading to some signature solo face-off sections near the end. Perfectly blending the band’s “Something Wild”-era antics with their cleaner and more direct recent sound, “Morrigan” is the first track in this release that gets stuff in your head. The melody is quite intoxicating and the atmosphere is just magical, a typical older CoB track but with an edge.

Alexi Laiho handles both rhythm and lead guitars in this release and you can really tell how they come together in a very cohesive manner. This allows tracks like “Horns” and “I Worship Chaos” to fully exploit his technical proficiency, while providing very solid melodic passages and killer solos. Other songs like “Prayer for the Afflicted” and “All for Nothing” nicely change the pace to a darker and slower tempo, which reminds us a bit of Hypocrisy and their “Fourth Dimension” release, but with the killer CoB edge to it.

If you are looking for Janne Warman solos, you are in luck and will get a good dosage of them on “Hold your Tongue” and “Suicide Bombre”, both very energetic and melodic songs. Closing with the very moody “Widdershins”, we are left blown away by such a quality and engaging release from this Finish band. Perfectly maturing over time, we think that they managed to achieve perfect balance when mixing what made them known (their first two albums) and their more elaborate and modern sounding release. If you like killer Melodic Metal, this release is a must buy for any fan of the genre and the band… new and old.

Label: Nuclear Blast Records

Release: October 2nd, 2015

Genre: Melodic Death Metal

Country: Finland