who's the best in COB??

But there IS feeling in music - that's all what I meant.

Music is one of the arts. To make something, to create something, whatever it is, you must have an idea. And to be this thing nice, whatever it is, a picture, sculpture, song, guitar riff, you have to put some feelings in it. You may make the differense when one song is made to be sell and that band to take the money, or because the guy who play it want to tell something.

"So you feel something, what is it, what do you feel?
"I don't know, it hurts."
"It will."

I mean - when you listening one song you may not like it, but the one who play it know what he want to say. If you don't "feel'it it's not his mistake, it's different thinking.
 
I think they all are the best! Not separetely, but together in the band. Alexi and Janne are really outstanding, but other members are talented too! I can't imagine COB without Jaska, Roope and Henkka. I just can't. I would be no longer COB...

For me Henkka is the best. Mabye he isn't the leader and he does not play "the best ever solos" and he doesn't sing, but as someone before has said - he is human. And he seems to be a very nice person. :) I wish I could someday meet him personally.
 
I have to agree with Ninja here although I can see where you both are coming from. Paul Gilbert continuously strives to be better at his instrument and plays probably daily. Alexi on the other hand I'm sure did the same thing at one point but he finally just kind of let all of the praise go to his head and spends too much of his free time doing stupid shit because he knows that there will always be fanboys at his shows who won't care how he plays. The cleanest I've ever heard him play was Tokyo Warhearts and I'm sure the reason for that is because the band was still trying to break out to people more and considering it was one of their first live recordings they took it a little more seriously than going on stage piss drunk. They also played really well in the old live in Chili vids. Alexi has done some amazing things in the studio, but people fail to realize that even a long time ago he was still pretty sloppy. This for example comes to mind, which they still can't play well until this day. My point here is that while Alexi pulls off amazing stuff in the studio, where he is sober (or atleast more so than usual), being put in a situation where he has to play a lot and do the same licks probably hundreds of times, of course it's going to sound good on the album. Live though is a different story. By your logic I could argue Dragonforce as good musicians.



Also, Arcane, I'm about 98% sure that the reason there AREN'T more covers of Downright Dominate is because not a lot of people realize Alexi is even on that song, the same way a lot of people probably don't cover his Guitar Heroes stuff. It's not because it's impossible, no discredit to him, but those are guest appearance type of things. It's the same way that if I went to a friend of mine tomorrow who loves Bodom and asked what his favorite Kyllahullut song is he wouldn't be able to give me an answer lol.

I think the number one silly statement I've read here is that no one could reach Alexi's level of playing which you said a little ways up there. There are DOZENS of players who have ascended so far past being better than Alexi that it's hard for me to get excited about Bodom anymore. Anyone here who thinks Children of Bodom songs are hard, I challenge you to go learn songs like Scorched, or Swarm of the Formless (There is a reason there are no good covers of these two songs) by Spawn of Possession, or just about anything by Necrophagist. Muhammed Suicmez is literally the Yngwie of death metal in that he's pretty much spot on live and in the studio. His playing is on such a high level that I can honestly say I don't think I've ever heard an album with as clean of a sound as their first album. Also, Jari Maenpaa. I don't think there is too much else to say there. Here are some other examples:


Phil Tougas. He's in countless bands and has wrote some the sickest music I've ever heard. I don't think he's even 21 yet.




This guy. I don't even feel I should have to explain here.




This guy.




Ryan Knight.



Also, I'm not going to go into a debate as to what you consider musical but this is miles beyond anything I've heard Alexi pull off.



And this.



I would even go as far as to say these two bass players impress me more than he does.
[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kRWVkg9jeRc&feature=relmfu[/ame]



Enough videos though. I like Alexi too, don't get me wrong, but to insinuate that no one has surpassed him musically or technically is absurd, and in a live situation Bodom does okay now days pending what songs they play. When I saw them last year they played great, but I can't say that it was still as perfect as what I see these guys pulling off. You can try to argue the singing bit but that still doesn't work for me. He never plays anything that complicated other than basic chord progressions and maybe a few melodies in some of the older stuff, whereas someone like Muhammed is singing and playing way more technical shit, and Yngwie is doing half of his shredding while jumping around, doing karate kicks and spinning his guitar around him, which Alexi tries to do and ends up playing sloppy because of it.

I understand music is personal taste and point of view, but Alexi has long been surpassed in terms of intensity, technical ability, and musicality.


/Rant.

Also, just realized this is in response to stuff on page 2 from a year ago :lol:.
 
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Once again, I said if you take sound appeal and personal taste out of it they are better. I completely disagree with you because no one sounds like any 1 of those bands. No one. To me and a lot of other people those bands are way more interesting than Children of Bodom has ever been.

For you to even say that Alexi's creative ability is better is just hilarious to me considering he followed the same musical formula on his first 3 albums, somewhat on the 4th, and then afterwards just went in a whole new direction for the worse. This is all subjective though, and if you really like his music better then power to you, like what you like, but a lot of people would disagree with you.

About the part of you saying the fence is the lowest is very funny too considering half of those bands fall into a niche that not many people pay attention to or care for. Children of Bodom are the ones making metal from the easiest stand point out of all these bands listed. Their songs are so generic and predictable now days that it's depressing almost. Tell me, how big of an audience is there for a band like Sleep Terror lol? Barely anyone knows of them and no other band sounds at all like that.
 
I don't really get what's getting popular nowadays in metal. Are people mixing up music with Olympics?

to me always the quality of the played notes counts not the quantity.people are going to soon run on the fretboard with both hands and feet! and year by year the amount of awesome and rememberable music is decreasing. bands are turning into note playing machines. people are like WOW in the beginning but that's just for a moment! and then another band pops up to entertain people for a while!

most of the awesome music albums I've heard since 2005 2006 in metal were bands which did not have super fast solos and too low tuned guitars or any of that.. but they offered a music that was mature intense and deep. and a music that haunts people for years... these bands may never get media's attention or break into mainstream but they will remain dear and adorable for all the fans who have always empathized with their music.

and as goes for COB and Alexi's playing I gotta say I've never idolized Alexi or any other members of the bands. COB to me is band like many other bands who offered something noble and genuine for sometime and then was corrupted by the industry and....

nowadays there are plenty of home guitarists who may be even better than Alexi but they never the get the credit that Alexi got. because Alexi touches or touched peoples hearts with his great music in terms of feelings. not his technical things and all. if one day I hear a solo from an unknown guitarist which is unearthly as the solo of ETID then I can say I'm impressed with that and those show-off 10 fingers tapping thing never impress me nor they have an emotional impact on me.
 
Once again, that's subjective to the listener, the same way some people prefer Jazz to Classical. I went down the road of explaining skill wise who is better because style is subjective. I also feel like this is the 3rd time I've said that so try to understand what I'm saying before pulling the whole "It's not about technical ability" but yet you want to say "That band is boring" or stuff like that. There are amazing players out there who I think make terrible music (Behold the Arctopus) but skill wise they are amazing, and since you can't argue personal preference, it's better to use facts.

Fact: Alexi is not the best guitarist ever.
 
I just listened to bits of nearly all the videos posted by Enmity a couple posts above, and what I have to say is: all that seeminly-fancy technical skills, but there's nothing interesting about it. I think the term "guitarist" is used misleadingly in reference to Alexi. Is he the best actual technical (metal) guitar player out there? And he'd just happen to also be the best composer who makes the coolest music too? Certainly not. It's the aura of everything in conjunction about Alexi that makes him iconic enough to be voted as the greatest guitarist of all, even tho he's quite probably not. He's interested in other things too than just guitar, so it's impossible. But what makes a guitarist? Is Alexi the best guitar player who has the most interesting image and most interesting art produced? Yes.

Where I think things have gone wrong is: Alexi had a terrific image as the somewhat depressed and deep-thinking Wild Child with long blonde hair and great vocals and the inexhaustible source of anger where to scoop energy into his music. He played his music good (which he still does most of the times when you actually give him a break), he sang like a deity of melodic death metal, and the music he made seemed out of this world. After this he's become American'ish, appearing like he's always hungover, and stopped caring about his legacy of art created with mostly the green and blue album which had as much artistic potential as Cradle Of Filth. And we all know what has happened to the music. The atmosphere and eargarmic soundworld is gone, instead it seems like it's just about Alexi's confused ego-trip now instead of the Children Of Bodom art. The name Children Of Bodom no longer has any meaning in the art, it's just the bunch of dudes, not the teenagers of Lake Bodom who drowned their depressions and followed the Reaper into a world where anger and sorrow are dealt with in violent fashion with unforgettable music. RRF is like you can only smell a gust of wind from the Hatebreeder era in the song SKO which fuels that magnificence for a few passing moments, the album just doesn't stir the pot of emotions as it's focused on technical aspects and not grasping the mood.
 
Once again, that's subjective to the listener, the same way some people prefer Jazz to Classical. I went down the road of explaining skill wise who is better because style is subjective. I also feel like this is the 3rd time I've said that so try to understand what I'm saying before pulling the whole "It's not about technical ability" but yet you want to say "That band is boring" or stuff like that. There are amazing players out there who I think make terrible music (Behold the Arctopus) but skill wise they are amazing, and since you can't argue personal preference, it's better to use facts.

Fact: Alexi is not the best guitarist ever.

I did not want to imply that technical music is bad or boring by any means. there are some real good albums made in this form of metal but again when most bands focus on difficulty of the song rather than the level of emotional impressiveness so for someone like me who is an emotional elitist they don't get much credit!

on the other hand, there is some sort of music out there which you may call boring but to people like me they are masterpieces.

a good example is this song.

this song is 15 minutes long...it's very slow.. no shredding you don't hear 35 technical riffs in 50 seconds and.....

but to me this song is one of the best songs that came out in 2005! it's just a brilliant piece of music.

so as always, I never have objective attitude towards this sort of differences








Fact: Alexi is not the best guitarist ever.

there is no best guitarist ever...there never was and never will be.
 
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An excellent melody of six notes is better than a boring song of 6000 notes, there's no question about it. It's possible also to have a great song with shitloads of notes but not an excellent melody. Take for example Tie My Rope solo, there's no special melody, but it's a very groovy use of instruments together.
 
I don't know what I have written before and I don't want to read the previous pages again so I make a new point. I think that there are thousands of better guitarists in the world who are better than Alexi. Gilbert as an example is propably the only guitarist in the world who never plays any wrong note. I don't know how this is possible but it's true. But when it comes to say who is the best guitarist in the world, everybody has his own opinion and has to make his own definition of the words "best guitarist". For me it's a mix of technique, clean playing and composing skills. I know so many metal and rock bands and guitarists but there is no single guitarist + composer who did a better job than Alexi. His solos are definitely outstanding. If I had to count my top ten solos, then all would propably be from Alexi. It's not because they are hard to play, of course some are, but they are top notch considering creativeness. There is no chance that any other guitarist like Gilbert, Muhammed, Romeo, Jari, etc. will ever be able to compose a solo which is 70% as good as Alexis. And all are - except Jari - are definitely better guitar players. Think about of any metal band and any guitarist who's getting that famous and influential during the last years than Children Of Bodom and Alexi. Alexi is propably the most influential metal guitarist these days.
Maybe that all sounds like I would love to suck Alexis dick 24/7 but I really can't tell you anything else. Even all of my friends who are mostly not that much into metal say that they have never heard any better solos than Alexis. And even my mother likes COB - except Alexis voice.

Anyways, thats all my personal opinion
 
The last couple posts I can agree with, atleast all of you aknowledge it's personal preference and to each his own instead of downright swearing someone is better. I'll respect your opinions in that regard.

Arcane, I respect your opinion since I know you're a great musician, and you managed to put it out there without coming off as an asshole like most people tend to do so bravo to you.

Jewnass, how could you possibly listen to AAL or even Evan Brewer and think those are boring? If you really think that then power to you, but both of those songs are very tasteful imo. I can understand the other ones I posted but dkfjaklfjadfkl
 
Thx for the feedback Enmity. But I have to add some things.... Alexis is my favorite guitarist - but what kinda annoys me a bit is his cockiness... What I mean is, he definitely knows that COB is himself but: 1: He isn't able to play his own solos most of the time live like he did in studio. Nearly half of all solos he plays live he fucked up, added something which doesn't sound as good as the original one or - mostly - ends with this shitty harmony tremolo stuff. (opposite of dive bomb - don't know the word for it) 2: His guitar is always too loud! You can't really hear what Roope plays. If you listen to sings like PMS, Roopes guitar parts are sooo much cooler than Alexis... If I would do a cover of PMS again and would only play Roopes guitar, I bet a lot of people would think either " hey, you added some cool harmonies" or " hey, you added your own style" or " hey, what you play is totally wrong!" because you can barely hear what Roope really plays. You can always remember Alexis guitar but not Roopes. I always notice that when I make tabs. Whenever I make any COB tab, I'm often pretty sure about the notes Aelxi plays and so I am about Roopes. But then somebody upload an instrumental version this song like AYDY, DWEDFN or whatever. Then I notice that I was right about Alexis guitar but was so wrong with Roopes guitar in some parts.
Tl/nobody wants to read...
I just want to point out that Roopes harmonie parts are often more interesting than Alexis and that it's a shame that Alexi is such a dick to always wants to have his guitar louder than evertihng else...
Listen to any Youtube cover when it comes to harmonies... Everybody who did a cover by ear is playing Alexis harmony part. In nearly all cover you watch on Youtube, you can't find any person who plays Roopes or Alexanders harmony or rythm guitar.

Edit: Excuse my bad english and grammer at the moment and everything I wrote. I had a few beer to much so I propably will tell you another story tomorrw when I'm sober.
 
Now that is some interesting discussion to read. Good to see that the forum is not so dead as it seems to be.. :D I have to say that I agree with most of your points guys. One this I don't like is Alexis' live tone (I have already mentioned it somewhere..). Well nothing can beat his live tone on Tokyo Warhearts. I like the studio tone on RRF too, but why is his live tone nowadays so distorted?! Imho it ruins sweeps and everything + the volume.. so you can hear almost every note he screws up. I really wonder how would he play his solos live with his today skills and condition with his Tokyo Warhearts gear (this tone would not fit the newer riff-oriented songs tho)! I think that as he started to focus on riffs his tone changed a lot because of that.

And who said that Alexi is better guitarist than Jari (Although I would agree with you 10 years back)? At composing solos? Yea.. nobody can beat Alexi, that's for sure. But live? Imho, no fucking way (at least, not today). Have you watched some of the live videos from the last year? I consider Jari's playing in this new song insanly clean.

 
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Maybe that all sounds like I would love to suck Alexis dick 24/7 but I really can't tell you anything else. Even all of my friends who are mostly not that much into metal say that they have never heard any better solos than Alexis. And even my mother likes COB - except Alexis voice.

I think most of those other good guitar players can suck Alexi's cock in terms of what they're doing with their talent. What use do they have for their flawless guitar playing mastery if they can't create a single good song.

I don't know how Alexi's playing skills have changed over the years, the vocals and the songwriting have changed to worse, though. But to think Alexi creted all those songs by himself, he plays them on stage as well as SIGNS over them... I've yet to hear ONE guy sing better (except Chuck Schuldiner and some other famous band vocalists who represent a bit different DM vocal style), I've yet to see anyone play all those songs in a stint, I've yet to hear many people make songs as good, let alone do all that simultaneously... so I have to say I don't give a shit if some "guitar hero" with no other life than guitar learned to play the guitar better in his basement. It's respectable of course, but it doesn't go over Alexi. However, I think it's somehow disrespectful on Alexi when he's talked about as a guitarist only, when his best credential is (or was) the songwriting.
 
Jonas, you've clearly either never listened to Wintersun's self-titled or have really bad taste because in terms of amazing production, singing ability (actual singing and metal vocals), and riffs, Jari shits all over him. I don't understand how you can honestly sit here and say that there is no other guitar player that has more talent than him and makes better music. There are countless bands out there way more interesting than Children of Bodom have ever been, without even having nearly the same level of skill. If you can honestly listen to bands like Ulver and still find Bodom more interesting I'm going to dub you the biggest faggot on this forum. Not that I want to, but it's probably going to happen.

Also, Arcane, I agree with you. Roope does come up with some really sick parts in their songs and you almost never hear him. Every time I've seen them live it's literally been nothing but Alexi and drums I could hear. It's really annoying actually. Roopes parts in the old Sinergy songs were sick as fuck and I really wish Alexi would atleast trade off solos with him in more songs than just 1 or 2 an album. His parts were really cool in We're Not Gonna Fall too. Even though I used to not like AYDY so much I've actually gotten to like it more than the last 2 albums.
 
Well, it all depends on personal opinion. I really like the Wintersun album but you can't compare it with Bodom. Bodom is so much more riff oriented. Wintersuns riffs are almost the same and there is nothing special in it. Also Jaris solos are cool and all but are nothing more than fast for me. I said it yesterday and will ever say it again, Alexis beats the shit out of every guitarist I know when it comes to solos. And again for the songs.... Wintersuns songs exists most of the time of the same riffs. It's nothing more than simple 16 or 32 fast shredding notes of simple chords whereas nearly every Bodom exists of 90% picking notes over 6 strings over the whole fretboard. They barely use any "simple" power chords in their songs. Necrophagist do the same in their songs but it's also another kind of music.
And again... everything said by every person is based on personal opinion. For me Joonas don't know shit about music but it's his opinion. I also accept when somebody like you say that Jari is better than Alexi or that his riffs are better, even if it's totally bullshit for me. As long as nobody tries to state things as "fact" (where Joonas is in his element), I'm fine with it.
 
Well yeah, I don't have a problem if someone doesn't like Wintersun more than Bodom. I really like Jari's solos, like Winter Madness and Death and the Healing, but that's just me. I can fully understand where people like Bodom, they had some amazing material, but I just think it's silly when people think that no other band is on par with them. It's fine if they're your favorite, but some people such as Joonas seem to ONLY listen to them. There isn't any one band in the world that I can listen to all the time and nothing else. My point here is that even if you really like something it's kind of ignorant to only swear by that like he does. Wintersun writes good music, or atleast to my ears. His riffs and so on may be kind of eh to some of you but songs like Battle Against Time and Sleeping Stars just have really cool atmosphere to me, like the sitar section in the latter song I mentioned.

Maybe it's just me, but I'm always hungry for new music and to discover interesting, fresh sounds. I can't listen to the same thing all the time. Lately I almost don't enjoy metal as much though so maybe I'm a little biased towards these things. Atmosphere and feeling have more meaning to me in music than anything else now. Bands like Biosphere, Ulver, and Bohren & Der Club of Gore are just more enjoyable for me to listen to lately.
 
When it comes to creating music, Alexi is in that "special" category. The melodies he creates are unique, memorable, and can be appreciated by a lot of people. Very few musicians are in this category. I don't believe Jari is in it. Don't get me wrong, the man is an incredible guitarist. His music hits a very niche audience, though. If I had to describe Wintersun I'd say it's like aggressive, heavy, power gospel metal. The really good riffs are few and far between, so it's hard for me to stay interested throughout their music. I also get that vibe that they're just trying too hard. On the topic of solos, Alexi creates solos like they are a song within a song. Very unique, with a good blend of slow and fast. You hear his solos a few times and you can memorize all of the notes, and that's when you know you've got a great solo. It's not all about insane sweeping and extremely fast playing. I think Jari's solos suffer the same thing as the riffs, they're only interesting and memorable during some parts. The parts where they shine are fucking amazing, though. A lot of people hate on popular songs that aren't technical or hard to play, but I don't think people realize how hard it is to make an easy popular song.

Personally, I think the metal genre has been struggling after the 90's because of fans and bands who think it's necessary to play heavier and to play faster or to act more "metal". The amount of shitty try hard metal music out there today is insane.

As for Roope, I don't know. His style meshed really well with Sinergy, but not so much COB. He's written solos for COB albums and they turn out to be the weakest ones on the record.