Children Of Bodom - Halo Of Blood

Published June 17 2013

*=Staff's pick	Waste Of Skin Halo Of Blood* Scream For Silence Transference Bodom Blue Moon (The Second Coming)* Your Days Are Numbered Dead Man's Hand On You Damage Beyond Repair* All Twisted* One Bottle And A Knee Deep

Genre	Melodic Death Metal	Alexi Laiho	Vocals
Tracks	10	Alexi Laiho	Guitar
Running time	42 Min.	Roope Latvala	Guitar
Label	Nuclear Blast	Henkka Seppälä	Bass
Release	05 June 2013	Jaska Raatikainen	Drums
Country	Finland	Janne Wirman	Keyboard
Producer	COB, Peter Tägtgren
Similar artists	Kalmah, Norther

When Children Of Bodom is about to release new material, I always hear that this will be something different and partly innovating, but in the bigger picture to me, Halo Of Blood is just a natural progress from their last album Relentless Reckless Forever. With their now eighth album, they also prove that this type of metal is sort of narrow. Not being patronizing, but how many versions of these types of songs are a band able to create?

The songs are generally on a solid high level, but nothing extraordinary. The keyboard occasionally find itself a bit lower in the mix than what we're used to, still being a vital element in their melodic death metal though. The title track, Halo Of Blood, shows a more brutal side of the Finnish metallers and Dead Man's Hand On You sounds very In Flames and is as close to a ballad you can come within this type of music, yet in the end almost nothing has really changed significantly. It's still Children Of Bodom to one hundred percent.

The trademarked guitar play with its hooks and melodic parts are as always around. The same with Laiho's angry voice as he shouts his way throughout these forty-two minutes. A rather long album in their standards actually. There's really nothing more to tell this time, so if you're a fan of this band, go buy this record. If you're not a fan, well… give it a shot.

Performance	Originality	Production	Vocals	Songwriting
7	5	6	6	7

Summary
7 chalices of 10 - Tobbe