The album opens with “Living Dead Beat”, a mid-tempo song starting off with a catchy synth line, leading into a standard Bodom groove complete with sing-a-long chorus. And for all the changes (the less aggressive vocals, the lack of neo-classical elements) the essence of COB is still present, the playful energy and joyful ease that marks all of their work. The song also contains (yet another) fantastic dueling solo of Laiho and Warman. Once again, the classical influences are somewhat scaled back in favor of a different and much more unique and distinctive sound. Next comes the title track, another catchy number with a great riff and a great chorus. This is followed by “If You Want Peace… Prepare for War” which ups the intensity, speed and aggression, yet retains the fun and wild feeling for which COB is known. After this comes “Punch Me I Bleed”, the “slow song” that has made an appearance at about the half way mark on the last few Bodom albums. The remaining songs, while all fabulous, fall into the same category of the already described songs (or somewhere in between), and consequently I see no need to continue surveying the album song-by-song.

If my above descriptions seem less enthusiastic than they should be given the 10/10 rating that I gave the album, I should perhaps briefly explain why COB deserves such a rating and why they continue to be my favorite metal group. In COB I see the healthiest and most important work being done in all metal, showing the world an entirely new approach to extreme music. The qualities of this approach I have already alluded to above, being the sense of joy and expert playfulness. These qualities can also be found in Baroque music, so it makes sense why COB’s earliest expression of them was through neo-classical metal, and why many people feel that the band has lost something in turning away from the style. However, this is merely a case of mistaken assignation, and should be remedied. The new album shows that these qualities are of a more personal nature and will follow these musicians whichever direction they go in. Before ending this review I would like to add that I believe these developments will be the most important influences on metal in the near future. That is, keeping in mind that this does not imply that extreme metal will become more commercial or pop-oriented, but that the innovations made by COB can be applied to the most aggressive and extreme forms of metal, intensifying the dark emotions prevalent in these styles with new musical feeling.

written by Andrew Zawislanski

Playing time: 41.00