NEW ALBUM Q42 017/Q1 2018

[RICJAMES]

The thing is, Alexi was never the smartest guy. (dropping school before even have a certificate or anything)
But he had talent in music, and that's what he should stick to. The thing is, he himself probably thinks
"I'm almost 40 by now, I need write at least somehow more mature lyrics." But the problem is,
he still has the brains and the imagination of a 16 year old. He really should focus on the music
itself. We won't ever get nor should we expect to get an Immanuel Kant or an HP Lovecraft from him.

 

[rj rl]

Relistening to the last album (last I did was more than a year ago) and it holds up surprisingly well.

However, much like after the release, I note that the guitar solos fucking suck and are nothing like some of the earlier stuff. Sounds like Alexi was just noodling for the sake of it. No sense of direction.
Notable example: the Morrigan solo, more than half a minute worth of mid-tempo cookie cutter licks, completely wack. Not looking forward to hearing more of that.

 

[(__Joonas__)]

It could be an interesting idea to think about melodic solos in his mind before touching the guitar, and thinking what kind of a song would revolve around it. It's all about imagination. This would be an interesting approach to try, but it's been riff-oriented for long because the sound and style has changed so much and there's less unison solos now. But it kind of stinks how you can hear the songwriting is one-dimentional in the way that the guitar is the main thing, instead of all instruments contributing to the song itself, if you know what I mean. Alexi has to think deeper and free his mind from the shackles of guitar riff oriented narrow composing. I hate that I sound like a dick, but I really have an insightful point here. Emotional drive in a song is an empowering element that seemingly creates the song by itself without sounding forced. Thing is, you only find this dimension of mind in silence, something which Alexi is avoiding these days. So rent the hut.

 

[rj rl]

Solo can have nothing to do with the overall vibe and still destroy. Example from the recent Aborted album: https://instaud.io/1dVf?t=2m4.7s
Technically simple, very strong melodically, catchy as fuck, well within Alexi's abilities, although not his style of writing. Hatebreeder or Warheart come to mind if we're talking about this kinda solos.

 

[(__Joonas__)]

It all has to flow together, I think the solo itself has to direct the song wherever it pleases, but the background music should be equally epic. For some reason I think of the song Follow the Reaper whenever this is discussed.

^That sounded whole lotta like Nile. Unnecessarily fast drumming with a nice yet unfitting lead.

 

[ESA1996]

2:53

rj rl's song reminded me of this one. IMO it's better

 

[Inceptionist]

Relistening to the last album (last I did was more than a year ago) and it holds up surprisingly well.

However, much like after the release, I note that the guitar solos fucking suck and are nothing like some of the earlier stuff. Sounds like Alexi was just noodling for the sake of it. No sense of direction.
Notable example: the Morrigan solo, more than half a minute worth of mid-tempo cookie cutter licks, completely wack. Not looking forward to hearing more of that.

I think when RRF came out he did a DVD and talked about how he writes solos now, that he just jams over the backing track and keeps the parts he likes, which basically means all the newest solos are "improvised". Probably the reason almost all of them have that one blues pentatonic sounding lick too, it's basically like him improvising live how he just uses the same lick every time too.

 

[CharIie]

^
I recall this too and while at first I thought it was a pretty good approach to have a more "raw" side to the music, I quickly realized that in Alexi's case it only meant to lesser the possibilities and that the result only was not serving the music as it should.

 

[Inceptionist]

Yeah, I think they've gotta go back to composing solos. Listening to ones like every time I die or children of decadence, those aren't solos you just improvise, he worked on those and they definitely sound like it. The newest solos sound like somebody just jamming, going through some practice licks, and calling it a day

 

[CharIie]

Worst example ever "Was it worth it?" (the answer: no, it wasn't)

 

[RICJAMES]

Yeah, I think they've gotta go back to composing solos. Listening to ones like every time I die or children of decadence, those aren't solos you just improvise, he worked on those and they definitely sound like it. The newest solos sound like somebody just jamming, going through some practice licks, and calling it a day

The problem isn't even the composing or not composing, the problem is what Alexi is. What is Alexi? He is a, even if he does not like anymore, a neoclassical shredder in the sense of Yngwie Malmsteen, he clearly is NOT a blues player, but that is what he trying to do, way too hard. Blues improvisation isn't a bad thing and it clearly does not have to be repetitive or anything, blues style metal solos could be absolutely great BUT you have to have certain skills to pull them off which Alexi clearly lacks. He only knows 1 single blues lick and he doesn't have a blues phrasing. He plays it as if it were Yngwie neoclassical shred, and that's not how blues works.

Look at Gary Moore, look at Joe Bonamassa, and look especially at Judas Priests Richie Faulkner,
that boy has an incredible blues repertoire and probably the best phrasing on the planet currently.
And his solos sound amazing and not even close to be repetitive or boring.


Alexi just should go back to neoclassical solos, because that's what he is and what he can actually do
world class. Those half ass impro solos are shit because he can't improvise, knows only 1 blues lick
and can't phrase.

 

[(__Joonas__)]

I think they should do simplified but catchy unison solos with a kickass background riff. With every song. Solos back to back, but at least a moment of unison beauty. Ones they can pull off live. Those were their charm. It doesn't have to be anything ultra difficult, and it can be something that fits a dark song.

 

[Inceptionist]

The problem isn't even the composing or not composing, the problem is what Alexi is. What is Alexi? He is a, even if he does not like anymore, a neoclassical shredder in the sense of Yngwie Malmsteen, he clearly is NOT a blues player, but that is what he trying to do, way too hard. Blues improvisation isn't a bad thing and it clearly does not have to be repetitive or anything, blues style metal solos could be absolutely great BUT you have to have certain skills to pull them off which Alexi clearly lacks. He only knows 1 single blues lick and he doesn't have a blues phrasing. He plays it as if it were Yngwie neoclassical shred, and that's not how blues works.

Look at Gary Moore, look at Joe Bonamassa, and look especially at Judas Priests Richie Faulkner,
that boy has an incredible blues repertoire and probably the best phrasing on the planet currently.
And his solos sound amazing and not even close to be repetitive or boring.


Alexi just should go back to neoclassical solos, because that's what he is and what he can actually do
world class. Those half ass impro solos are shit because he can't improvise, knows only 1 blues lick
and can't phrase.

You can definitely hear the suicide by my side album draws influence from guys like him

 

[CharIie]

Just asked Nuclear Blast facebook page about the upcoming CoB album. Here is was I got from them:

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hello, I would like to ask you a question regarding the upcoming Children Of Bodom album. It was initially declared that the band would hit the studio in Automn this year for a release in early 2018. I just saw however that they have a full tour planned until december in North America. Does it mean the recording will be postponed til then or are there any plans to record it before the beginning of the NA tour ?

Hi Charlie, you have to ask the band directly. There are no official information at the moment. Greetings Christopher New Media Team Europe.

Would you happen to have any contact with their management or else ? I doubt contacting the band itself will result in an answer.

The official press release coming soon.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

So stay tuned guys

 

[tragician]

 

[(__Joonas__)]

From IWC they need to up two things: speed and density of musical information. It should be melodic death metal, like Hatebreeder but more sinister and even more melancholy. Think what kind of riffs and melodies can co-exist in the same song, so the song starts to rhyme - I think this property made the green and blue album feel so special, the songs were living individual entities. I repeat this for the tenth time, I think Alexi should lay down the guitar and think of the song idea in his mind before touching the guitar, so the whole song becomes alive as one epic idea. I can hear in the last albums the guitar is trying to carry the song too much.

 

[CharIie]

I know what you mean Jonas. And I think that no matter what we think of CoB here on this forum (and god knows how many different opinions there are) I think we all agree that Alexi Laiho should focus on "thinking" the song and not "jam" it.

 

[(__Joonas__)]

I think it's down to an intense feeling, almost as if the songs themselves are stories that involve an environment, an event and an emotion. I think the "blank sheet of paper" is a mindset that's like a curse; an artist thinks he's having a writer's block, but that's just because he's mentally not inside the creative zone. I think the masterpieces come by silencing the disruptions and listening to your deepest imagination, where there's many things waiting to be discovered. Everything else is just forcing it, you might end up with a few cool ideas, but I'm just saying. Maybe Alexi should try meditating, going to a silence retreat to chill out and think deep about song ideas, spend some lone time with his demons.

 

[CharIie]

I just asked for the album on the live and they aswered

They will hit the studio in MARCH for a release Autumn 2018

 

[CharIie]

It's actually nice because it means that they actually are spending more time on the writing like we kept hoping they would do but fuck.... one more year... It's gonna be a long one XD