I was at the two latest shows and will go tonight too. in my opinion the new lineup is good and they have more energy in their playing than COB in the last tours. But it's lacking the personality that COB shows had. It feels like "Alexi Laiho and the background band" instead of a new band.
It seems that people's opinions kind of depend on how they look at this: are they thinking it's COB with a new lineup or are they thinking it's a whole new band? Of course the people that come to these shows are there with COB shirts on and they expect it to be a COB show. But it's not COB with just Alexi.
I think they should have released a new album before playing live because right now they aren't really offering anything new. I want to take this in as a new band and see how it goes but that's not the message they are giving with these shows. They aren't bad, they play well with good energy but for and old fan of COB I'm not surprised if some feel this is just a lamer COB?
Then again this is a good test for the lineup and practice for them in developing their own "iconic live routine" of sorts. The songs are gonna sound good no matter who plays them because they are good songs, so it's less stress on that note but for fans it would be easier to kinda turn the next page if they would play mainly new BAM songs and have a few COB songs in there.
I want to believe Alexi just doesn't want to take a too long break from live shows, he wants to show he's still there and still doing what he does but I can't blame those who feel like this is a "I didn't need COB guys anyway I can replace them" message. Still, people can have their feelings and miss the old lineup, I saw some old fans had posted on insta that they will never go see this band again. But the song writer perspective that "I wrote these and I can keep playing these with a new band" is completely valid too.
The thing is Alexi is the face of COB, even if he did release new music and tour with that, people would still be there wearing COB shirts and expecting an old song as an encore.