Children of Bodom Album: “Trashed, Lost & Strung Out”

This album is pure genius..The only bad thing about this album is that there are only two new COB songs here...The other two are covers....The covers are good, better than the originals (obviously, who is playing!). But i would have been much more happier if they had 2 more new COB songs. My favorite is "Trashed, lost and strungout"...I would recommend this album to any and every death metal fan..COB rules...

Bodom seem to get increasingly aggressive with each album they put out. Hatecrew Deathroll saw the beginning of Alexi's almost tuned down and heavier riffing, and this trend continues on this album. Janne Warman's keyboards are a little more profound on this release than they were on Hatecrew, and are used best on the track "Knuckleduster." As usual Bodom put out a slamming album full of technicality and virtuosity. The four star rating is only because it only has two new tracks on it, and though they are awesome I still have to take off a star. The two covers are awesome, and even though I loathe A.W.K, Bodom's take on his song is awesome. Long live the Hatecrew.

To begin, let me say that COB is my favorite recent metal band, and in my opinion, probably THE BEST metal band on the face of the planet. Second, I cannot even properly verbalize the amount of respect and appreciation I have for this band. The music is incredible. For a bunch of guys in their mid-20s, they know exactly what they are doing, and they do it better than most of the more recent Scandinavian Black Metal Bands, and metal bands in general.

The only reason I am giving this CD 4 stars is because it only contains two new original songs, and the other two are covers. The Alice Cooper cover is pretty cool, but I don't care for Andrew WK or any of his songs (they all sound the same to me), and it is rather humorous hearing Alexi Laiho saying "She is Beautiful" when I am use to hearing angry and depressed lyrics on Bodom albums. But Alexi does put an interesting twist on both of these songs. In addition, the riffs, melodies and solos on the two new songs, "Trash, Lost and Strungout," and "Knuckleduster" are amazing. I like the way Alexi and company always start a song nice and heavy with classic metal riffing, then they get very melodic as the song progresses. Alexi's lead work is a marvel in itself. Full of pentatonic minor scales (I can hear the Zakk Wylde influence there), melodic minor scales and sweep arpeggios (Yngwie all the way there). Just awesome guitar work all the way around with Alexi, awesome drum work from Jaska, and great keyboard melodies by Janne. This short EP has definitely got me anticipating their next full-length LP.

This EP really blew me away. Trashed, Lost, and Strungout is one of my favorite songs now. Knuckleduster is almost as good. The other two songs were covers. Alice Cooper's "Bed of Nails" which is an amazing cover, and Andrew W.K.'s "She is Beautiful". I didn't care much for "She is Beautiful" but the other tracks make up for it. Highly reccomended towards anyone into metal.