When preparing to analyze any work from Children of Bodom, you generally already have an idea of what to expect. The successes of their twenty-plus year career has been defined by a spastically symphonic brand of melodic death metal, all themed around the grim reaper… obviously. That said, when news broke about their ninth studio album, I Worship Chaos, I still found myself both excited and curious about what may come from it. And I must say, it certainly delivered in all the ways we would have expected, and probably hoped for.

Even if you’ve grown too familiar with Children of Bodom’s sound recently, there was plenty of cause for intrigue in this release. For one, the band said farewell to guitarist Roope Latvala, who joined the band following the 2003 Hate Crew Deathroll release. While nobody likes to see departures, I would argue the best Bodom days were up through 2003, a span of time that also included Follow the Reaper and Hatebreeder. Secondly, if you take a look at the recording spot for this album, at Danger Johnny Studios, it’s basically a garage. My understanding is that the space was used to increase the record’s ambiance. Finally, with Alexi’s notable decline in drinking and partying, there were enough changes going on in the Bodom world to make I Worship Chaos a marked release. Oh, and the record it followed up, Halo of Blood, was a notable return to form as well.

While the opening tracks (starting with “I Hurt” and continuing through “Horns”) are punishing displays with weighted rhythms, the melodic elements and tasteful leads that define Bodom are never sacrificed, kicking this album off brilliantly. Basically, it sounds like Bodom. The feature of this stretch, and this album, is undoubtedly “Morrigan”. The transitions from one riff to another are completely seamless and the complexity of the sound is tied together nicely by the keyboards. In these moments you start to hear the significance of the recording space utilized for this album. Unlike recent albums, this sound surrounds an audience with far more significance. It’s an ambiance and atmospheric quality unseen in Children of Bodom in some time, if ever. And it’s an element that takes this album in a positive direction.

It’s from this point forward that we start to see other musical styles at work. Where “Prayer for the Afflicted” is a haunting refrain of darkness and sorrow, the closing track, “Widdershins”, shows off a more thrash influence. That said, it’s between these tracks that things start to wane. The album is overall cohesive in what it does, but neither the title track nor “Hold Your Tongue” do a ton for the overall sound. It’s all solid, the aggression is maintained, and the structure is consistent, but there just isn’t enough there beyond that. Furthermore, it’s these latter tracks that become a bit more disjointed. The transitions aren’t as smooth and the choruses don’t hold as much prominence. For example, “Suicide Bomber” opens and centers around a killer guitar lead that is an absolute earworm, but the verses just don’t seem to work with it well. Fortunately, the aforementioned closer brings the album home on a blistering upswing.

I don’t necessarily think Children of Bodom will ever match their successes of the late 90s or early 2000s. But there is still a lot to appreciate in the Children of Bodom sound and I Worship Chaos features much of that. It certainly has its highs and lows, but overall it is a consistently solid album that can easily be considered one of their better releases of the past decade. The last two albums have certainly shown us that Bodom can produce on a high level, leaving plenty of optimism for the years ahead.

“Ein Bier… bitte.”
– Corey

I Worship Chaos is out now on Nuclear Blast. For more information on Children of Bodom, visit the band’s official website.