Follow The Reaper

Children Of Bodom | Format: MP3 Download

Product Details

• Original Release Date: February 20, 2001
• Label: Nuclear Blast
• Copyright: (c) 2001 Nuclear Blast GmbH
• Genres: Hard Rock & Metal/Death Metal, International/Europe, Pop/Pop Rock, Rock/Progressive
• ASIN: B000R00NDW
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (137 customer reviews)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Now This is Great Metal!, August 19, 2004

By 

Richard Terry (Denver, CO United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Children of Bodom are a band that has recently caught my attention. I purchased this album after watching the music video of the song 'Everytime I die,' and I was waiting for Follow the Reaper to arrive in the mailbox! When I first put the cd in the stereo, I was incredibly happy with the awesome sound and quality that this cd has.

Follow the Reaper opens strong with the title track, and I absolutely love the keyboards. Their keyboardist has immense talent, along with Alexi, the lead singer, and the rest of the band. Bodom After Midnight is a fast-paced rocker that sounds like Iron Maiden leads mixed with death metal style vocals! The song, Everytime I Die is an awesome song, and I loved it when these guys played it live when I saw them with Iced Earth. The rest of the songs rock, and the riffs are amazing. Children of Bodom are here to stay, and I highly recommend this album! Metal fans will enjoy this release due to the fact that Children of Bodom are a fun band to listen to.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars the kings of neoclassical death metal return..., March 15, 2001

By 

Jason P. Sorens "Political Scientist" (Tonawanda, NY United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

"Follow the Reaper" contains few surprises for those who are familiar with Children of Bodom's two previous albums, "Something Wild" and "Hatebreeder." For those not familiar with Children of Bodom, shame on you! This band is one of the more exciting metal bands around today, combining harmonies derived from Bach and Vivaldi with an aggressive guitar and (especially) vocal sound.

The synthesizers tend to be a little more diverse on "Follow the Reaper," both in terms of tones used and the sorts of harmonies played. Children of Bodom have moved slightly away from the strictly baroque approach of their first two albums into traditional progressive and melodic metal territory - "Bodom after Midnight" is a good example of this trend. But the way Children of Bodom combines these elements is certainly UNtraditional. This is pretty much breakneck, Dionysian music for those moments when you just want to jump up and air-guitar madly until out of breath.

I have to note that the lyrics are basically terrible. Children of Bodom have never been known for their poetic expertise, but "Follow the Reaper" sets new lows with random profanity and cliches about how great alcohol and suicide are. I doubt the band takes these lyrics seriously - in interviews they tend to see themselves just as over-the-top entertainers. Some will not be so entertained.

Overall, I would rate this album slightly below "Hatebreeder," but it still makes my "top ten metal albums of 2000" list. There are slightly fewer great musical moments, and as mentioned, the lyrics are worse. These best parts of this album, in my view, are the extended guitar-synth harmonies, as found on songs like the title track and "Children of Decadence."

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars If In Flames are Iron Maiden on acid..., June 28, 2001

By 

Chris 'raging bill' Burton (either Kent or Manchester, United Kingdom) - See all my reviews

... Fans of Opeth, Cradle Of Filth and/or In Flames who think that those bands are brutal yet melodic, Children Of Bodom (while not sounding like any of those bands) are the kings of mixing elegance and beauty with sheer brutality. My only complaints are that "Every Time I Die" falls below the standard of the others (but considering how great they were it's not that bad - oddly enough the 2 guitarists think it's the best song they've written!) and that the lyrics are bad. Other than that, an almost perfect album.

They also have a sound that makes me hesitate to call them death metal (albeit melodic death) or black. It's more like 80s power metal (incidentally, done well without the cheese) but faster, heavier and with aggressive vocals. It also has keyboard solos (I think that's a first for a death band) and influences ranging from nu-glam and electro-pop to neo-classical music, as well as the likes of black metal such as Dimmu Borgir (who don't have keyboard solos but still have very prominent synths like Bodom) and power metal like Blind Guardian. Sound a bit dogdy to you? Probably. Put off? Don't be. Describing this would probably make it sound bad but beleive me when I say that this is an absolutely great album.

Not only is this my new favourite album, it's also the first black/death metal album to get full marks (although I think Cradle's "Cruelty And The Beast" and Satyricon's "Dark Medieval Times" deserve full marks as well - I was in a stingy mood). What we have here is an album that is original (how often can you say that about a black metal band?), intelligent and ALMOST perfect. I can't recommend it enough. The best songs include "Follow The Reaper" and "Mask Of Sanity".