After recording Follow The Reaper at Peter Taegtgren's infamous Abyss Studio, the band decided to return to the loving arms of a long-time associate, Anssi "Viiksi" Kippo, and the bowels of Astia Studio. The result is nothing short of breathtaking! Not only has the band taken their songwriting to new levels of aggression and heaviness, but also the way the songs are presented literally pummels everything they have done into a pile of smoldering dust, making sure the path of destruction is complete. The time is now - JOIN THE HATE CREW! -1st new album in almost three years! Massive anticipation amongst the international metal community. -Fourth full-length from one of metal's leading acts. -CHILRDEN OF BODOM has received platinum single and gold album awards in their native Finland. -Produced by Peter Tagtgren (Dimmu Borgir, Immortal, Hypocrisy, Marduk) at the famed Abyss Studios in Sweden.

Album Description
The original masters of Finnish black metal return with their fourth album. Nine tracks. Century Media. 2003.

After gaining International recognition and praise with "Follow The Repear", the band sacrifice themselves and managed to keep up their high standards by releasing yet another masterpiece. "Hate Crew Deathroll" is an album that parts from their earlier release showing us a more brutal side yet keeping the melodies and amazing guitar work.

Before I go ahead and review each song I must comment on their talent as musicians because few bands from Europe and hardly any from America can compare to them. I have been a fan ever since "Hatebreeder" (Their Second full length album) was released, so I am not a punk who just brought this release and have no clue what I'm talking about.

Needled 24/7 - Amazing opener. A song that reminds us of their earlier release. A powerful song with all the melody that Children Of Bodom is known for. One of my favourite riffs ever is present here after the second chorus. 10/10

Sixpounder - Children Of Bodom have never sounded louder. The brutality and rawness of this song is something we were not exposed to from their earlier releases. The riffs are plain, and directly stimulate your brain into doing something crazy. "WAR- I REFUSE TO BE BROUGHT DOWN BY YOU". 10/10

Chokehold (Cocked N' Loaded)- A song that took some time to finally dig in my soul and cause another addiction to this cd. Amazing chorus and of course guitar work. 8/10

Bodom Beach Terror - By this time the person who is listening to this for the first time would have already agreed that we are dealing with one of the world's most amazing bands. The addiction to this style of music will only get stronger from here on. Amazing Song. Powerful as hell. 9/10

Angels Don't Kill - One of my two favourite songs in this immortal album. A masterpiece of melodies, power, and musicianship. The rythm is slower than what we have heard so far on this release, yet it is probably the most powerful. Amazing. We can now upgrade their status, from world's best band to just simply Godly. - 10/10

Triple Corpse Hammerblow - The first song I heard from this album, and that was good enough to convince me that these guys were still on top. 8/10

You're Better Off Dead - This song was released as a single. Beautiful tune with what might be the catchiest chorus in this album. Beautiful riffs with a great deal of power. 9/10

Lil' Bloodred Ridin' Hood - My other favourite song. Probably the best song in this timeless release in my opinion. We have riffs that bring out power, riffs that bring out melody, and riffs that bring out madness in me when I hear it. It's excellence is otherwise undescribable to one who has not heard this band. 10/10

Hate Crew Deathroll - The title track might seem at first like a weaker song, yet for after subjecting yourself to it for a while I realised that we are talking about one of the stronger tracks here. I don't expect people to understand the brilliance of this song, but it is an amazing piece of music up there with my 2 favourite songs in this album. - 10/10

Silent Scream - The bonus track is a cover of one of the most known Slayer songs from their album "South Of Heaven". Children Of Bodom do a good job mixing their unmistakable sound to this song. However I do prefer all the other tracks to this. 7/10

This album is a masterpiece of epic proportions. I urge you all to buy it as soon as you can, or forever die.


Absolute Brilliance   February 9, 2004
 8 out of 9 found this review helpful

Only a small amount of words can explain what this cd contains. It is definetly one of the best albums I have ever heard. Each song is powerful and explosive, yet there are those occasional breaks for some beautiful synth moments. Speaking of the synthisizer, it's sound fits in perfectly with the heaviness of the songs. These songs put off the vibe that they're really pissed off, but also having a great time as well. That's just cool.

From the first time I heard Sixpounder, I knew I had to get this cd. From Needled 24/7 to the title track, it will have your head banging non-stop. That's how powerful this album is. The before-mentioned Needled 24/7 is a powerful, catchy start to the album with some intense lyrics. Sixpounder is a track that just screams hatred and has a great sound to it. Chokehold (Cocked N' Loaded) is another powerful blast of talent on this cd of greatness. Listen for the nice keyboarding towards the middle. Bodom Beach Terror is an awesome, explosively fun track that has some sweet guitar work scattered about, especially the solo near the middle. Angels Don't Kill is the slow song of the album, but that doesn't mean anything. It is very powerful and has both a feeling of sorrow and hatred to it. Triple Corpse Hammerblow is my personal favorite, with a sweet show of the synth's power and the vocalist's anger. The song ends with a great vocal effect that sounds very demonic with the lead singer's voice. You're Better Off Dead is an on-the-edge-of-sanity song that you have to love. This may very well be the most powerful track on here. Lil' Bloodred Ridin' Hood is a deathly powerful track that you will not want to pass up. This and the previous song are great being next to each other on the cd. Hate Crew Deathroll has a peaceful begining that explodes into a song with great drumming and guitar work. It is definitely a sweet way to end the cd.

So I highly recommend this cd to all of you who are even thinking of getting it. I also recommend Dimmu Borgir (duh) and Liquid Tension Experiment Vol. 2. LTE is very similar to Children of Bodom, only not nearly as destuctive.


fantastic   July 25, 2005
 5 out of 5 found this review helpful

i will admit, these guys are definately my favorite band, but im not gonna be like most people with their favs and preach to you on how these guys are the best and no one competes, its all based on opinions, this album or follow the reaper would definately be the first album of CoB that u want to buy, lets call them starter albums, this album seems to have elements of many different types of metal, ex:thrash, melodic death metal,some black metal, and all that great stuff, now if uve heard that these guys are just completely black metal, cuz i know that a lot of ppl say that, well its not true, if u are heavily into black metal and no other genre, this album is prolly not for u, or any CoB for that matter, but of course i could be wrong, like i said, its all just up to YOUR opinion, but if u have only heard OF children of bodom, and havent actually heard them and your looking for a cd to start off with, this or follow the reaper would be your best bet


Good, but not great.   February 22, 2006
 5 out of 6 found this review helpful

Just thought I'd weigh in on this one since there are so many gushing reviews about it. I'm a fan of Something Wild, Hatebreeder and Reaper, but this album was disappointing to me. Everything just seems dumbed down. I don't want to be one of those haters that says, "Blah, blah, blah, back in the olden days" and I know that a band has to evolve but I feel like COB lost a little of what made them great with this album.

What I liked about the earlier COB albums was that there were all so fast and fluid, with the guitars and keys ripping it up back to back and all flowing together. But here it's all a little more clunky. The guitar riffs feel more hackneyed and while there are some good solos, none of them really made me say "Wow!" like some of the stuff off of their other albums. As some other people mentioned, the keyboards don't fit as well with this more "aggressive" album, which is sad because I love COB's keyboards! There are also some industrial sounding elements added here, which isn't a problem for me, but I just don't think COB needs to go in that direction...extra distortion on the vocals, machine-sounding keyboards instead of more classical sounding ones...just doesn't work for me.

So a message for those wondering which COB album to start with: don't start here. Hatecrew is a good album but it doesn't really exemplify how brilliant COB really is. Start with Something Wild or Hatebreeder.