Children of Bodom’s seventh studio album, Relentless Reckless Forever, the follow up to 2008’s Blooddrunk, is a funny one for me to review really.
Clocking in at something a little short with only 9 tracks, there is nothing inherently wrong with the latest Bodom record at all. It is Bodom doing what they do best, with this sounding exactly how you would expect it to. The songs are good, great riffs, screaming vocals, hell, even a keyboard solo (?) comes out in opener Not My Funeral. However, something didn’t sit right with me, and I am still not quite sure what it is.
It is a bunch of good tracks (not great), but it felt to me as though it was going to struggle for clear standouts. However, as the album progressed, it did seem to get better, with Ugly, Cry of the Nihilist and Was It Worth It sounding potentially huge. I get the feeling that this could be more of a grower, and although it was a good listen, it didn’t necessarily knock me out on first listen. Sure I enjoyed it, but it seemed as though it needed something more. Perhaps a couple of extra tracks might have made it seem more complete, or maybe it did just need a couple of more anthemic “hits”.
I will always judge Bodom by their masterpiece, the seminal “Hate Me” from their Follow The Reaper album, and there didn’t seem to be one track on here that was anywhere near as good as that. However, due to the fact that the album got better as it went on, primarily as a result of the aforesaid three tracks, this was saved from a 5 out of 10, and will receive a more respectable 6 out of 10. I genuinely feel that I will need to give this a listen to again. Perhaps its genius has been lost on me first time round.
In other news, Pussyfoot Miss Suicide is an awesome, awesome song title!
I will reserve final judgment until I give this another listen, but for now . . .
6/10
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