Ελληνικά
Last Updated on 08:52 AM by Giorgos Tsekas
Genre: Melodic Death Metal
Country: Finland
Label: Nuclear Blast Records
Year: 2019
I belong to this generation of kids that grew up with the late 90’s melodic death metal and european extreme metal acts in general, but had always been a little more keen on Finland – from Lordi to Sonata Arctica and from Nightwish to Children of Bodom, Finland has marked our puberty with amazing melodies and songs we secretly listen to until now here and then. Most of thoese bands have disappointed us at some point, though; one of them is Children of Bodom, a band that used to be on my top 5 when in Junior High, until the day they released the hideous “Relentless Reckless Forever”, a record that left us with quite a bitter feeling. After a nice try to regain their legacy to our hearts with “Halo of Blood”, I was really waiting to see what “Hexed” would be about. From the very first moment, I was astonished. Finally, a Children of Bodom record that brings back all the amazing odors we had loved for this band. Melodies and riffs from the “Follow the Reaper” and “Hate Crew Deathroll” era and a general oldschool feeling I did not expect to be honest. The album is a must for all those who used to worship the Alexi Laiho poster above their beds and to all of us that used to walk around with all kinds of CoB merch all month long, but heck, this is actually an amazing record for the genre in general. Those who have been exclusively listening to the first two albums might not find something particularly interesting here, though. “Kick in a spleen” and “Say Never Look Back” have a more new-school death-ish feeling, while “This Road” and “Under Grass and Clover” could have easily been written around 2003-2004. There are of course some fillers, such as “Soon departed” and “Hexed” (reminding of the later Blooddrunk era), too. Easily one of the best by the band, if not the best immediately after “Hate Crew Deathroll”.
4,5/6
