Children of Bodom – I Worship Chaos

Label: Nuclear Blast Playing Time 45min  Release: 2nd October 2015

Alexi Laiho and his sidekicks returned to their path glory with their last release: less groove, more melodies. On their 10^th album they continue to walk this way, but in a bit more subtle manner. More subtle because the first thing you hear is this massive bombastic wall of guitars vanquishing everything. I have rarely heard a such massive guitar sound a recording! But underneath you can hear tons of fine, classic melodies, just like you know them from the guys. But it needs some time discover them – maybe a point of criticism, but on the other hand it keeps the album interesting for a longer period of time. Those who spend the necessary time  will discover high class songs like ‘I Hurt’, ‘Morrigan’, ‘I Worship Chaos’ and ‘Widdershins’, which all contain the typical Bodom trademarks. Also the doomy ‘Prayer For The Afflicted’ is well-done and sets a nice contrast to the faster stuff. Actually not all songs can hold this high level (‘Horns’ and ‘ All For Nothing’ are obsolete in my opinion). Nevertheless, this album is a further step in the right direction.