Why Did They Change?

Why did COB's music change?

  • Money became priority

    Votes: 5 14.7%
  • Musical taste changed

    Votes: 29 85.3%

  • Total voters
    34
Couldn't pick an answer because neither of those really work here.lol. What happened to COB was they didn't wanna be put into any ONE metal genre so they kept mixing it up. And now no other music sounds like bodom, because they kept changing it up, and they still do.

No no nooooo! They had greatness going on, then they started sounding American with their new albums after they got famous. This happens to every band.
 
The last three albums sound a lot similar with each other, than the three first.

Well, when they made first albums they were a kids with so many ideas and didn't know if anybody even listen them. Now all the world knows them, the fear is gone, they are like gods, they can do whatever they want. Something is changing in their life and this reflecting in the music, that's what I'm saying. I don't think WildChild will let some "fuckin' 3 piece suit wearing motherfucker" to tell him what to play.
 
Well, when they made first albums they were a kids with so many ideas and didn't know if anybody even listen them.

When they made their first albums they were passionate with so many ideas and didn't care about mainstream music, just did what sounded cool.

Now all the world knows them, the fear is gone, they are like gods, they can do whatever they want.

Now all the world knows them, the need to make an impression is gone, stupid fans treat them like gods, they can't do whatever they want anymore.

Something is changing in their life and this reflecting in the music, that's what I'm saying.

Success, too much mess, too much alcohol and smoke and unhealthy life on the road that drains inspiration out of you. The only single plus: experience. And even that can bring more negatives.

I don't think WildChild will let some "fuckin' 3 piece suit wearing motherfucker" to tell him what to play.

Why do you call me 3 piece suit wearing motherfucker
 
After reading few posts in this topic, I must admit that Aries Wild Child is the most retarded CoB-fanboy/fangirl I've seen on this forum so far. In fact I'm kinda disapointed in myself, considering how long it took from me to figure that little fact out, as obvious as it was.
 
Honestly, I feel like its pretty clear that Alexi just moved on from the whole neoclassical phase he was going through with the first few albums. HCDR is influenced by some trashy heavy metal, so I'm guessing Alexi was just listening to a bunch of Slayer and Pantera after FTR. Sixpounder is probably influenced heavily by A New Level by Pantera, and it seems to me that Needled 24/7 is influenced by Silent Scream, Slayer. There's probably more but I can't think of anything right now. If you ask Alexi what is favorite album is I'm pretty sure he'll say a vulgar display of power by Pantera.
 
Honestly, I feel like its pretty clear that Alexi just moved on from the whole neoclassical phase he was going through with the first few albums.

It's not about being neo-classical, it's about making good songs.

After reading few posts in this topic, I must admit that Aries Wild Child is the most retarded CoB-fanboy/fangirl I've seen on this forum so far. In fact I'm kinda disapointed in myself, considering how long it took from me to figure that little fact out, as obvious as it was.

It's almost like you wrote the the lyrics about COB fangirls for Impaled Nazarene's Contempt :lol::

You whore, you treat men like dogs
In your sickened mind
You think you are a queen of one kind
You are the perfect example of me-me generation
Fuck the V.D's they are cured by pills
No responsibility
You do as you wish
I laugh when you will die of A.I.D.S.
Then you get yourself raped
Tell it to the world
On all possible forums
I read all this shit
With total dismay
How can you be so retarded
Keep on cutting yourself
Your pitiful attempts
To gain some attention for you
You are pathetic whore
Totally worthless
Next time cut the right way
Then you get yourself pregnant
Tell it to the world
On all possible forms
I read all this shit
With total dismay
How can you be so retarded
Finish what you have begun
Cut the right way
Let yourself bleed to death
No one cares at all
What you will do
Your funeral is more than welcome

If so then I totally understand the new COB direction. That album is utter bullshit if you ask me. Nothing interesting.

True. Aside from Power Metal, Pantera is lame redneck-shit.
 
I never listened to Pantera before Alexi mentioned them. I dunno, I don't really like the songs either but I can see why people do. It's got nonstop in your face feel to it, and Dimebag was a wizard on the guitar. The only song I actually listen to regularly by them is Cemetary Gates. That one is an all time great.

It's not about being neo-classical, it's about making good songs

All of the COB albums are equal in quality, just different styles... but I'm not discussing that shit ever again.

And to reinforce my thoughts on the matter, here's a video of Sinergy playing a Pantera song from Vulgar Display live in 2002. HCDR was recorded in 2002.

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E165SSwyORg&feature=watch_response[/ame]
 
All of the COB albums are equal in quality, just different styles... but I'm not discussing that shit ever again.

I wasn't going to start the 10000000th old COB vs. new COB-discussion, but to point out, that the reason a lot of people love the old albums is not about Yngwie or neo-classicalism, but the melodies, riffs, and general atmosphere on them. On Something Wild solos and guitar-wanking has the smallest role on all COB-albums anyway.

EDIT: And on the other hand, the Pantera-influence it should be totally obvious just by listening to Alexi's vocals.
 
the reason a lot of people love the old albums is not about Yngwie or neo-classicalism, but the melodies, riffs, and general atmosphere on them.

This is what I also keep saying all the time, as it creates a lot of confusion. The silly stereotype mispretation seems to be "HB/FTR had one secret to awesomeness: neo-classical melodies"... which is ridicilous. Then these people ask this topic from Alexi and he says "No I'm not making neo-classical melodies again" when they mean to ask if he's gonna want to "make the art more atmospheric again instead off the riff-orientation." Nothing like this has ever been asked, which frustrates me.
 
I guess you also buy the story that Alexi changed to ESP just because his two Jacksons were stolen, without realizing how damn many guitars ESP sells because of Alexi. :)
I don't know if your a musician or play in a band ... but playing in a band means: Putting a shitload amount of money and time in your band/music without knowing you would receive anything back.

Alexi started CoB/Inearthed in 1993 and Something Wild came out in 1997. That means 4 years of working your ass off for a band that is most likely to quit within a couple of years because it just doesn't take you anywhere.

If you are a musician and you're somehow lucky enough to get a record label and finally get some reward for the years of hard work then you're fucking happy. Being endorsed by a company is a dream coming true for every single musician, not just another opportunity to get some extra cash.

The same goes for touring. 300 days a year away from your friends and family, living in cheap hotels, sleeping in touringcars, shitting and pissing in cheap mobile toilets. You do that because you love music and not because you love money.
 
I think we're going though wrong ways. My own opinion.

For me, at least, the main reason for the music style changing so abruptly from HTD to AYDY is that the boys (Alexi) wanted to enter more incisively in the American music market. It would be the boom of their popularity if they could grow in the US market. (And it was, ad you can see now. Brilliant move.)

I really like AYDY, but honestly, you can see how the songs are easier to "comprehend" since then. Less variations, more repetitiveness. The ~lack of creativity~ people keep complaining about is, in my point of view, because they wanted to hit a very specific public, and they did it making melodies that would hit people's taste, but, at the same time, trying to keep the "old Bodom", mixing styles. You know, it would take some tries.

Now, you may not agree with me, but Bloodrunk turned out to be a very messed up album, I'd say, because it had no identity at all. It was more of an experiment. Somehow it's like Alexi was trying new things to fit their style but with the same purpose of expanding their public. The songs sometimes sound the same, following the same style etc.

But, for RRF, I can't blame too much on them since it's a lot more stable album than Blooddrunk. With more variations, more original riffs between the songs, risky sometimes, but you can see it feels more natural than the album before. They changed their style? Yeah. But I would never say RRF is an shitty album. It's really well produced and recieved very positive feedback.

What I mean is, you can't wait the next album to be Something Wild pt. II, you know it will not. But Bodom is still Bodom, the essence is there.
It must be a shame in some people point of view, but I think that it's nice to try new things. It might come out really fucked up, but I wouldn't say it's Bodom's case.



But you know? I wouldn't mind too much if they added fucking samba to their songs if it meant they would do a shitload of shows in Brazil two times per year, holy shit.
Or maybe I would.
 
Like my Bulgarian teacher says: Writers and musicians make their best stuff when they start their career.
Let's take Stephen King- Carrie (is that the way it's suppose to be written in EN?) is one of his 1st books and it's so amazing- you can truly see that he wrote it just because it came naturally, but then he became famous and even thought he has some nice ideas, the money and the fame kinda destroyed his writing and the results are books like Full Dark No Stars- he is the Master of Horror and this book proves it, but still it is kinda fake- he wrote it because of the ideas he had AND because he could smell the money, coming to his hands.
In my opinion the same happened with Children Of Bodom- at the beginning Alexi had those ideas and the result is Something Wild. Back then, none of them knew that they will become famous and will inspire so many people so everything came just like that. The fame can destroy you, no matter how hard you try to protect yourself (I'm not saying that they are not down-to-earth- probably they are, but I'm talking about something completely different).
As Loviisa said- they wanted to become famous in America and the results are all those albums fans complain about, but this step made the name Bodom well known worldwide. The last album has amazing ideas- love it, but as I said for Stephen King- they wanted the money, too.
I'm not trying to say that money became priority, but no matter how hard they deny it, money are very very important part of their music. Their musical taste did change and this made them huge and along with this money pour like rain.
I don't know if I wrote everything clear, but what I was trying to say is that musicians, writers, artists etc. live for what they do- they do it because they like it (And because they need it, but that's another question) and money will never become priority, but they are a massive part of everything and everybody subconsciously changes because of them.
 
I've been thinking about this, if I had worked all my life for an art of some form, and now had established my name and the window to fortune was open, what would I do, choose to proceed evolving with the original ideas and passion, or sell my soul and get paid for the hard work I've done as I didn't have an education... Of course I would evaluate on the balance between fame and passion. I believe you could still express your original personality thru a new aspect, but thrash is really the only type of metal spirit that just does not fit the theme of the Lake and Reaper, so the idea had to go too because of the music... But it's really everything that's changed: think about the songs on the last albums - the theme has changed sufficiently from mythological death metal into melodic thrash about skateboarding, alcohol and inner demons. Maybe the reality is Alexi squeezed everything out and got tired of the deeper atmosphere as it reminded of his depression, started materializing his emotions into more superficial subjects in music, leading to the music losing its original nature, so they could as well go for the bigger market. HCDR could have been titled Children Of Bodom Gone Thrash, it was so unlike them. Maybe little things lead to big changes, it starts musically, that translates to different atmosphere, different sound, different artwork, different lyrics. Still the change is huge (and I don't understand why someone throws away such magnificent band theme idea), but I'm starting to think it's possible an alien did not land from outer space and insert a different brain into Alexi's head. It's three things: different tastes, on what level the creativity resonates, and money tru new audience.
 
Wow, 4 pages full of speculations and "facts"...lol
To be honest, I've read some interesting posts but 90% is pure nonsense. IMO it's what 25 guys and me voted. So why this endless discussion?
Why did they change? Because musical taste change. Here you should stop but no, next questions is:
And why did their (Alexis) musical taste change? Because it's boring to compose the same stuff every year again.
Why aren't you satisfied with Bodoms new style? The best technical songs are all on the new albums. My favorite riffs and songs are all on the new albums. Since AYDY they have some "real melodic" chorus, Alexis voice is better on the new albums, for me it makes definitely much more fun to play the new songs than the boring HB/FTR songs and so on... It's good that they change their style, otherwise we had no old vs. new Bodom discussions (and some of them were really funny), no things Joonas could cry about and no detuned guitars because of the permanent up and down tuning
 
You mentioned something that I was too lazy to write down:
There is no such thing as a musician/ artist/ writer that's completely normal. If they were, they'll probably become doctors, teachers, etc.
They are at the very edge of being a normal person and being a total psycho.
For them the music they make/ the books they write/ the pictures they draw is a "trash bin" (there was a specific word about this in English, but I forgot it- it's a trash bin for mental issues, if you understand me.. sorry about my English). Due to this they are still more like "normal". Can you imagine a person like this just sitting at home and watching TV? He'll freak out, but not in the funny way.
As you mentioned, the "Old COB" is all about depression, there is something super dark and creepy in their music and that's the time when Alexi was in this kind of depression. He was cutting himself like crazy and I don't even want to know what other things he tried. That kinda inspired the music for the first albums. Probably it's just me, but every time I listen to Downfall it makes me think of a dying person or a person in coma or a person with cancer. Probably I'm wrong- in fact I'm still studying psychology and I'm not as good as I want to be, but can you imagine this? Alexi (Or another person if you don't want to imagine your idol in a scene like this) sitting somewhere cutting himself like crazy. Sure- he was depressed, his head was very very very fucked up and he wanted to die but think about it- you know that you'll die here if nobody helps you fast. You don't want help- you just want to die but knowing this and feeling this at a young age is not the best thing on Earth. If you're bleeding you stare at the blood and kinda see your life flowing!
He survived- congrats for him, congrats for everybody that helped him. Depression, suicide, death can inspire. He was bad, like, super bad and he threw out everything from his soul away with music. That's how their best stuff were born.
As far as I know now Allu is okay (As much as a musician can be okay) and the dark stuff that inspired him before are kinda dead in his head and that's how the new albums were born. This things that happened to him can inspire those dudes for more and more great music, but I won't blame them if Alexi refuses to remember details- that's creepy.
However, I think that their new music shows that Alexi is getting better and better (Mentally) and I can only be happy for him.
And isn't it nice that he's writing about skateboarding? That's the thing he wants, at least it's not suicide.
Music taste changes, priorities too but for now they still have my support.
 
Wow, 4 pages full of speculations and "facts"...lol
To be honest, I've read some interesting posts but 90% is pure nonsense. IMO it's what 25 guys and me voted. So why this endless discussion?
Why did they change? Because musical taste change. Here you should stop but no, next questions is:
And why did their (Alexis) musical taste change? Because it's boring to compose the same stuff every year again.
Why aren't you satisfied with Bodoms new style? The best technical songs are all on the new albums. My favorite riffs and songs are all on the new albums. Since AYDY they have some "real melodic" chorus, Alexis voice is better on the new albums, for me it makes definitely much more fun to play the new songs than the boring HB/FTR songs and so on... It's good that they change their style, otherwise we had no old vs. new Bodom discussions (and some of them were really funny), no things Joonas could cry about and no detuned guitars because of the permanent up and down tuning


+1

honestly i started listening to bodom because of the newer albuns. i simply love the ENTIRE aydy and hcdr album, like the blooddrunk, love the rrf. what i like in cob is this melodic trash thing from the recent albuns, the vocals have much improved, the melodies arent that exagerated like before, the riffs are more groovier (specially in hatecrew deathroll album) and tecnical. but sure ftr and hb are masterpieces that nobody can ignore. i love the new cob and the old so im always happy with the band

if cob continued to do melodic albuns like the old ones maybe now i would be bored as fuck and stopped listening to them. i think they changed in the right time.

but joonas i believe that they will change again or even return to what they once were in just one album or such, i dont believe they forgot how to do an amazing melodic album at all