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."

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".