Children of Bodom - Something Wild

Coming from completely from left field, these young Finnish upstarts (average age is 19 on this record!) have taken the world by storm. Incredibly tight, Children of Bodom slash their way through 35 minutes of highly technical metal in the black/death vein, pausing only occasionally to throw in an eerie sample or two. All these guys must do is woodshed, because the musicianship is top-rate, which, when incorporated with the stunning production, forms easily one of the best releases of the year. I've seen this release lumped in with "black" metal, but as with bands such as Cradle of Filth, it's the vocals that drive towards this classification. The music is based more on melody than anything else, reminiscent of Maiden mixed with classical passages, while the lyrics are pretty much unintelligible. I'd say that the only thing holding Something Wild back from being a 9 is the keyboard sound, which to me sounds like the old Hammer Movie Soundtracks and noticably overrides the sound on more than one occasion. This, and the short minute running time are my only complaints, for Something Wild is an excellent album which spans many sub-genres of metal to appeal to almost everyone. Think Nexus Polaris sped up to 45 and you have a slight picture of what this sounds like.