Children of Bodom - Are You Dead Yet (2005)
This is not my favourite CoB album but it is still a good one,Laiho does as usual a good job with this one....
"never expected Children of Bodom to make an album like this. I doubt anyone did. It's been surrounded by one hell of a dispute, with opinions ranging from complete garbage to the coming of a new genre. I'm not here to assert my own authority or provide a final say on anything; only my opinion.
This is, like the rest of Children of Bodom's discography, an incredible album. Their first three were the pinnacle of the extreme Finnish power metal sound, fused with neoclassical elements and the meanest shredding this side of Asgard. Hate Crew Deathroll was the birth of a brand new sound - extreme brutal power metal, with the lead guitar, melodies, and keyboards coming through stronger than ever, only backed by a violent assault of riffs. Are You Dead Yet? is an expansion of that sound, delving even deeper into the land of the riff, never abandoning Alexi Laiho's affinity for melodic lead guitar.
It's this volatile mix of melody and brutality that makes Are You Dead Yet? such a worthwhile album. Trashed, Lost & Strungout was an amazing preemptive view of this new sound, featuring lightning-fast drums and blindingly technical guitar and keyboard work as usual. However, the entire album certainly breaks out of a one-track formula, bring forth a new sound for each individual song. The first single, In Your Face, is more of an anthem than a musical masterpiece. It seems to summarize what CoB is all about, making heavy, in-your-face metal. That's exactly what this track is, laden with bare-bones riffs, headbanging grooves, and powerful keyboard backing.
The songs Are You Dead Yet? and Living Dead Beat follow the led of the EP song Knuckleduster, providing more heavy ass riffs with a defined keyboard atmosphere topped with some solos that will surely turn heads. Other tracks like We're Not Gonna Fall and Bastards of Bodom are throwbacks to their Hatebreeder-era power metal days, with the dominant lead guitar driving the song and catchy melodies throughout. Others still fall between all of the extremes listed above, with Next In Line and Punch Me I Bleed providing an artful balance.
The latest Children of Bodom album is, in the longrun, a very creative album. No band has ever played a thrash/power fusion quite like this before. While fans of their older work may be caught off guard, open-minded metal fans in general should find this an enjoyable, unique romp in the valleys of weak-slaying riffs and Yngwie-slaughtering solos. CoB really did it again with this one, as, while different, an entirely worthwhile album full of excellent metal."(review from metal-arhives.com)
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