Children of Bodom are definitely the rising band from Finland the metal scene has to offer at the moment. After touring Japan, Australia and the US they finally came back to Europe this year. So after almost two months without concerts I was of course more than looking forward to their show in Bochum (GER). The venue was comparatively small and therefore packed and even though everyone was freezing outside while waiting in line, the interior temperatures soon reached the boiling point. So I was lucky to find my spot on the stairs left of the stage from where I had a pretty good view over the whole stage.

The show started pretty early. The Swedish band One Man Army and the Undead Quartet hit the stage around 6.30 p.m. already. I didn’t know much about them before and to be honest they couldn’t convince me of their music. They had some nice fast songs with great solos (which unfortunately were barely audible due to bad sound mixing) but their singer wasn’t exactly giving the best performance and his constant tries to cheer up the crowd were pretty annoying. Some of the fans seemed to like them though but overall everyone seemed to be saving his energy for later.

The sound was fixed when the second band of the night went on stage: Hungarian metallers Ektomorf. They made a far better impression on me. Their influence by Sepultura cannot be neglected but their energetic show was one of its own kind. Especially singer and guitarist Zoltan was head banging and jumping around the stage wildly at the same time and seemed to have a lot of fun. He encouraged the crowd to jump like crazy which at least the people in the anterior part of the venue did. Statements like “fuck all the racists out there!” and “fuck all those who judge us by our looks” were enthusiastically welcomed by the crowd and earned Ektomorf a few credits with fans (note: Ektomorf belong the gipsy minority). So all in all a great show and we’ll hopefully hear more from them in the future.

At 8.30 it was time for the “Children”. They used a Beatles song as an intro and dove right into their opener “living dead beat” when all 5 of them had entered the stage. And wow, everyone was frantic right from the beginning. The crowd was one huge moving item for there was no space at all to build a mosh pit. The hair was just flying around everywhere, so it’s needless to say that everyone was having an awesome time. To my astonishment Alexi could walk properly even though he had broken a toe a few days earlier (adrenaline does its little wonders I suppose). Together with Roope and Henkka he was head banging, cheering the fans and torturing his instrument like there was no tomorrow. After six songs, among them such great hits as Sixpounder and Hate Me, all the band members except for Jaska left the stage and he started his furious, about three minute long drum solo - time for everyone to take a deep breath. The show went on with an extremely long version of Bodom after Midnight and Bodom Beach Terror. What made it so long were two solos in between played by Alexi (guitar) and Janne (keyboard). The interaction between the two of them was great in general. Alexi was playing several of his solos either standing next to Janne or sitting in front of his keyboard. Once in a while they were chatting during some of the songs and Alexi was even so nice to help Janne drink a beer during one of his solos. Not that he would have needed that help because he didn’t seem very “busy” most of the time and there were a few times when you could see him play his stuff with one hand and then drink beer with his other hand. What a sweet life! But the funniest moment of the show was definitely their little solo battle after Needled 24/7. They both in return played a solo and each time tried to be faster and more skilful than the other one. Well, the applause was heavy each time so there was no clear winner.

As you can see, the show had it special moments. Besides that, the set was a nice trip through the band’s history. Of course they played many songs from the new album but luckily didn’t forget about their older music. Songs like Downfall und Silent Night, Bodom Night were welcomed as well as the new single In Your Face and Are You Dead Yet which the crowd sang along as loud as it could. All in all it was a great show but I have to say that the only thing I didn’t like that much were the many solos played in between the songs because they kind of took the drive and energy away. One solo would have been enough and the fans would have appreciated two or three more songs instead I believe. But to come to an end, Children of Bodom are definitely a band you should have seen live at least once!

Set List:

   1. Living Dead Beat
   2. Sixpounder
   3. Silent Night, Bodom Night
   4. Hate me
   5. We are not gonna fall
   6. Angels don’t kill
   7. Drum solo
   8. Bodom After Midnight
   9. Bodom Beach Terror
  10. Follow the Reaper
  11. Needled 24/7
  12. Battle Alexi/Janne
  13. In Your Face
  14. Hate Crew Deathroll
  15. Are You Dead Yet?

Encore

  16. Lake Bodom
  17. Everytime I die
  18. Downfall