Music is an image conjurer. It can evoke emotions and thoughts through the use of simple lyrics, complex melodies or a series of chordal progressions designed to create a certain mood or tone. This is why individuals often allocate certain genres of music with socially constructed stereotypes, because of the images that can come to mind through the process of listening.
For example:
Classical music is thought of, as a mature-man's music because we envision cigar aficionados, penguin suits and brandy.
Blues produces images of guitarists who sleep in the same clothes they wear on stage and drink whiskey like it were water.
Most genres have an associated image or stereotype, which allows people to categorise and even judge another's personality based on what is spinning inside their compact disc players.
Metal of course, is another victim of the social stereotype. For the ignorant, metal is only concerned with depicting depressing themes of death, evil, the macabre and of course, the thirst to end life.
Children of Bodom's "Hatebreeder" does nothing to falsify this usually incorrect impression.
The album is comprised of pure metal aggression, which thrives on it's own power supply of hatred, anger and pain.
However, aside from this aspect of the album - which I am partial to, there is a particular neo-classical influence that comes in through the guitars, making "Hatebreeder" priceless to its fans.
Like all great albums, stylistic individuality captures the responder on "Hatebreeder". The band takes influences from death metal, classical and a little bit of 80s rock and manages to intertwine them all, producing an album that isn't dramatic or overly emotional at all. This shines through on most of the songs, and contributes to this peculiar, yet incredible and marvellously technical metal style.
Like I mentioned earlier, music is an image conjurer. "Hatebreeder" could not be more of a perfect example of this notion, as when I listen the music all that comes to my mind are images of battle from wars fought in the Middle Ages.
As a bit of context, the band themself derive their name "Children of Bodom" from a lake in Finland, their homeland, which is said to be haunted by the ghosts of three teenagers who were murdered during the middle of the 20th century while camping by the lake. According to the story, a man came and individually murdered each child (there were four kids, one got away and is still alive today) with a knife. Police have never since caught the man. The one who did escape it today alive and resides in a Finnish mental asylum.
The album should be prized for certain features but none more than the action and energy that exists within each song, guiding the listener through the album and inviting the responder to head bang till their skull finally detaches and falls off.
"Hatebreeder" begins with the song
'Warheart', which commences with the voice of what seems like a sinister and eerie person warning,
"From now on we are enemies. You and I." Following this is that adrenalin powered, monster-slaying energy that I've been mentioning. I am not pointing this out to make the album sound like it's not for the faint-hearted, but rather to illustrate that the album is different and more importantly, intense.
What the band has done in this song is draw a battle scene and hidden it within the music. Within the first ten seconds, one can visualise two armies charging at each other across a distant plain brandishing all kinds of sharp, pointy objects. However, luckily, the band doesn't convey this in a corny, cheesy - Hollywood fashion. It's done like it should be, with realism - as though they themselves are indeed possessed by the warheart, pure of all moral thought or caring for their equal man.
The lyrics are darker than the inside of a black hole and leave the listener empty of thought, stretched out and awkwardly different.
"I have chosen darkness to be my guide/ War is in my heart, death is by my side," or
"Warheart! Hate your fellow as yourself".
This again shows the aggression that swallows up this album, achieved by the sheer power within the lyrics and what they are conveying.
As an interesting contrast, my favourite track on the album
"downfall" includes one riff played by the 'wild child' which juxtaposes a type of nursery rhyme riff with very dark, heavy death vocals and high-speed guitar and drumming. This is probably the most ingenious aspect of the album, that ability to juxtapose the two total contrasts of the purity and evil.
The album, like most noble things on this earth, is reminiscent of a good novel. Much is left to the imagination, which leaves very little room to incorporate aspects of romance or melo-drama into these songs. Individuals who listen to the songs are free to set their minds on fire by constructing their own interpretations or visions of what the music really conveys.
The best example of this might be
"Bed of Razors", a song that starts with an awfully catchy melody, and personally gives me the image of a spider's web.
Interestingly, the lyrics are very romantic - however they are only romantic in a chilling gothic horror sense. An example of this would be,
"I feel the fire burning in my heart, I see it sparkling in your eye," or
"Give me your hand, let me make you feel the ease, in the bed of razors we bleed together".
Moving on, I found the greatest aspect of this album to be that all the instruments, especially the guitars, operate as one. Most of the parts, due to their neo-classic appeal sound like they were meticulously planned out and crafted properly, the way it should be. When I hear these parts, it is obvious that the care and time went into these insane melodic lines because each is played with total precision and quality. Often the lines are played in unison and/or harmony, which provide a catchy feel and are primarily what contribute to the neoclassical style that essentially defines this band of musical intelligence.
Children of Bodom's "Hatebreeder", is a work of metal wonderment. It encompasses everything that embodies metal, and song writing as a whole. At no point on this album did I feel like corners were cut, or something could have been reworked to sound better.
This is an album for metal heads that have been hiding under a large rock, because that's the only excuse they should have for not hearing it and savouring it up till now.
For those who honestly have not heard this album, or cannot find its inner-majesty for whatever reason, I feel truly sorry for you.
Written by
Yoni Thursday, April 3, 2003
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