NEW ALBUM Q42 017/Q1 2018

[<Arcane>]

Upvote:

Soon Departed from 6,5 to 8/10

Say Never Look Back from 7,5 to 8/10

Downvote:

Kick in a Spleen from 6 to 5/10

Knuckelduster from 8 to 7/10

 

[Permafrostish]

I stopped listending to the album after half of the songs, switched to Mayhem De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas alive. :-D
Will give Hexed a new try tomorrow, right now I just cant open up for new music. :-(

 

[yowbie]

Really wish Daniel had input. I miss naildown

 

[yowbie]

Also kick in the spleen is the titties

 

[Works0fheart]

Just listening to it for what it is and not comparing it to the old albums, I think it's pretty good. It's still pretty good all around. There's never going to be anything they release that's as good as the first 3 albums but this still isn't bad in general. I like it and that's more than I can say for any album since Are You Dead Yet?

 

[BodomBlueMoonHC]

Here's a gem I found lol

 

[rj rl]

Relapse: Much better. The first full song on the album that makes me feel the sensation of listening to Bodom stuff.

could be because it sounds very much like existing tracks of theirs: compare it to Done With Everything, Die For Nothing. Apart from the intro/verse riff, the rest is straight out of that song. And the vocal rhythm pattern at 1:00 in Relapse they've already done in Hellhounds On My Trail at ~2:25

 

[dthmtl3]

Have been listening to this thing in my car most of the day, granted not the best way to hear it, but nothing really stood out aside from the beautiful lick in Hecate.

Just finished listening to it with some headphones:

This Road - second half is alright 6/10

Under Grass and Clover - it's ok for what it is, the cheery harmless accessible song 7/10

Glass Houses - the bass! That's where it's at. Henkka's best bass work. 7/10

Hecate's Nightmare - that lick is so amazing, but like Jooonas says, it should explode instead it's just in the background, they could have done so much more with it 9/10

Kick in the Spleen - too simplistic. Wants to be Shovel Knockout but doesn't come close, love them chugs though 6/10.

Platitudes and Barren Words - the initial melody is nice but it would be nicer if the guitar stood out over the keys, and for the rest the rhythm guitar work is the interesting part. Stongly dislike the cleaner vocals. 7/10

Hexed - does nothing for me aside from the tremolo picking, what is it that people like about this, is it the "hexed" scream that people hope to scream live. Again if in the neo-classical part the guitar stood out more I would like it better 4/10

Relapse (The Nature of My Crime) - rather dull, nothing particularly good about it, nothing too bad either 6/10

Say Never Look Back - I like this one, has the energy of My Bodom. 7/10

Soon Departed - Great song, better than the slower songs of the past. It's a pensive song helped out by strong bass work. 30 seconds longer than necessary though 8/10

Knuckleduster - Hey! like everyone says, the original is better. 6/10

The live songs apart from poorly chosen songs are pretty standard performances not even good ones

Knuckleduster (remix) - pointless. Downfall would be better suited for a remix than a lackluster song to begin with

I think once the novelty wears off people will realize that this album isn't all that good. Or I will discover some amazing bits that I haven't yet. This album just reinforces my hope that one day there will be a COB without the damn keyboards or at least put them in the mix where they belong, waay in the background. They contribute little to this album and just get in the way of the lead guitar. The good thing about Hexed is that it focuses more on rhythm guitar work. Now if Alexi got back into fun leads. Not crazy about the production as it pertains to guitars and drums, but at least one can distinguish the bass. Overall right now I'd rate the album solidly in the middle somewhere. It's not a top 4 album by any stretch of the imagination.

 

[(__Joonas__)]

Really wish Daniel had input. I miss naildown

He's had lots of input, I can hear which ideas are his. Plus one of the heavy riffs is straight from a Naildown song.

 

[==>Mask Of Sanity<==]

Here's a gem I found lol

Glad to see I’m not the only one to dance like that while listening to metal

 

[COB-666]

Hexed - 8.0 on metalstorm.

 

[<Arcane>]

He's had lots of input, I can hear which ideas are his.

Anything you know what we don't know? Tell me more.

 

[Johnny_victor]

Anything you know what we don't know? Tell me more.

Whole Platitudes sounds to me like a song Daniel wrote and then Alexi changed some parts...don't know about other songs. And yes Relapsed sounds too much like some riffs used in Blooddrunk...and since Daniel loves this album, maybe it was his influence as well.

 

[(__Joonas__)]

I just feel many guitar parts sound like Daniel more than like Alexi.

 

[kilon]

So I just looked back at my first impressions on IWC and HoB and I really didn't like the majority of the songs on those albums back then either, but I do like or love most of them now. Time really does change your perspective.

I already think the worst songs on this album aren't as horrible as I thought they where yesterday (but also think the best songs aren't the best of the best I thought they were either).

Also, listening to Hexed after RRF, HoB and IWC it really doesn't feel that different. All those albums are roughly of the same quality. So far Hexed still is the weakest of the 4 in my opinion, but it's not worse than Blooddrunk any more.
The verdict isn't out on how many songs are worth adding to a playlist though. Time will tell.

 

[Andry_Wildchild]

I wanted to quickly say a couple of things before giving my feedback on the album.

I think a lot of people here go into a new album with a mindset and/or expectations that ends up setting them up for failure.
COB’s repertoire makes it so that people have different standards and opinions as to what they consider good/bad and what they look for in a song( this is clearly shown by the substantially different feedback people have been giving about the songs on this last album, as well as all albums for BD onwards)

I am an old school COB fan just like you all and will be forever chasing their HB/FTR sound period. Nonetheless , I still very much enjoy ALL the work they have put out since ( something more something less) with that same smile on my face and to me each album is a different chapter, a different sound , a different story, different memories and, for that , they are all special.

I think a new album should be given the chance to be judged as an individual body of work instead of always being compared to whatever album of theirs you might think is best.
I don’t know how anybody here is seriously still hoping that a SW/HB/FTR 2.0 can still happen. That’s like expecting Metallica to come out with Master of Puppets 2. Not gonna happen.
It is only natural that bands evolve and I consider myself lucky enough to have had moments/elements and parts in these new songs that were such to throw me back to the early days even for a few seconds because to be honest they don’t owe that to us at all
Of course it’s 100% still new Bodom but I like the turn they are taking and me personally , after going through the album 3/4 times, I am WAY more excited and impressed than I was for IWC. And seeing how IWC ended up growing massively on me too I have got good hopes for Hexed to work is way up the list of my favorite COB albums in a few years when the smoke clears.


Will post a detailed review of the album after a few more listens , just wanted to say do NOT sleep on Hecate’s Nightmare ( no pun intended)

 

[CharIie]

..., just wanted to say do NOT sleep on Hecate’s Nightmare ( no pun intended)

I did on my way back from work yesterday and I slept like a baby ^^

 

[Andry_Wildchild]

I did on my way back from work yesterday and I slept like a baby ^^

I don’t mean literally, I mean don’t overlook/underestimate the song

 

[COB-666]

Official trailer 7:
" Alexi Laiho discusses the band taking a break from doing cover songs this album cycle, and the bonus track on "Hexed." "

 

[Norbix]

I am an old school COB fan just like you all and will be forever chasing their HB/FTR sound period. Nonetheless , I still very much enjoy ALL the work they have put out since ( something more something less) with that same smile on my face and to me each album is a different chapter, a different sound , a different story, different memories and, for that , they are all special.

Yeah, man. I said before the album came out that based on the track by tracks I was dubbing this album for me as the "groovy" one, while HB is the "mystery" and FTR is the "epic" one. I still stand by that. This album is definitely groovy/easy listening. The sound world and the groove is very audibly pleasing. With the previous modern albums, I mostly thought "that's cool" or "that's impressive", but this album I'm actually just jamming out to.

It's still really early in the digestion stages, but so far I'm still enjoying this album as a whole much more than the other modern COB albums. It stands out as something unique in their discography so far.