children of bodom live

Openers for tonight's heavy metal shredfest seem slightly out of place on first glance. Diablo, from Finland, are far more melodic, and not generally purveyors of deep death growls or squealing manic shredding. They have that traditional Scandinavian feel, musically comparable with the likes of Soilwork, with synths in the background and powerful melodic choruses. This makes it all a bit more accessible and pleasant on the old ears, although Living Dead Superstar, is slightly more aggressive and had the crowd punching the air down the front. Singer Rainer Nygard has a powerful voice that can hack it live and on big stages. The set was sadly quite short, only half a dozen songs, but left an appreciative and full Rock City wanting more. It appeared that this wasn't such a strange support choice after all. Diablo should rightly get more recognition now outside of Finland.

Cannibal Corpse was middle of the bill although it was more of a joint headline and many thought Cannibal Corpse SHOULD be headlining. The pre-gig chants showed a HUGE proportion of this crowd were there for Cannibal Corpse and they were soon on stage after a magically swift ten-minute change over.

Now here's an interesting band for me to review. Note to readers: I HATE this REALLY heavy sort of death growling. With a passion. I will never ever understand it, like it, buy it, willingly choose to go see it... you get the picture. So here I am, having to review it, objectively. And I can honestly say hand on heart that I was totally emotionally unmoved, and actually rather disappointed. Cannibal Corpse may be at the top of their genre, they may be fantastically talented musicians, and the songs may be executed perfectly. The music itself, if you listen to it without the vocals, is some powerful stuff that I couldn't help be slightly in awe of, and could easily respect. But I just don't get the vocals. Singer Corpsegrinder Fisher just doesn't have enough charisma and rapport on stage to interest me fully. His interaction with the crowd usually consisting of "This song's called... death growl voice on "insert perverted sick title here". (You can't announce the title in a normal voice, it's the death metal law). Between every song. I'm not sure I quite get what's remotely entertaining about that really. The synchronised hair windmilling to every single song annoyed me too. I mean, I don't expect choreography a la Take That from these big scary f***ers who you wouldn't want to meet down a dark alley, but it's just a bit boring to watch after ten songs of it. I presume I was supposed to have been moshing around in the PIT and not watching, to appreciate it more fully.

Anyway, back to the songs. Crowd pleaser Evisceration Plague had the moshers going for it with more energy. Delightful titles such as I Cum Blood, and F***ed With a Knife explain why Cannibal Corpse have been banned in many places, and the slightly off centre mosh pit in Rock City lapped it up, thrashing around, circle pitting and throwing empty plastic glasses around. The renowned wall of death was a bit more a stumble over a slight pile of rubble really though... Nottingham audiences really are a little tame compared with many other cities.

Cannibal Corpse easily earned themselves a kind of encore before ripping the venue up with Stripped, Raped and Strangled and left to a massive ovation. They say you either love Cannibal Corpse or hate them. I hate them, but a packed Rock City full of metal heads loved an hour of savage extreme death metal by a band that makes most sane people's ears bleed. Not for the fainthearted.

Bodom then took what seemed like an age to come on despite most of their kit already set up on stage. The fans regularly took up chants of "Bodom, Bodom!" and waited, and waited some more. By the time the intro tape started the momentum of the evening had been just a little lost which was a shame. 'They're coming to take me away, ha ha' blared out over the PA before the band entered, the biggest cheer, of course, reserved predictably for front man Alexi Laiho, carrying his trademark custom made ESP signature series Flying V.

'Hellhounds on my Trail' kicked off proceedings, Alexi spitting up into the air. Second track Living Dead Beat saw the entire crowd already clapping above their heads and eating out of Laiho's hands. Sixpounder was up next and finally saw the first crowdsurfer of the evening, and a bra was thrown from one of the Alexi worshipping girls at the front to remind us all that Bodom don't just appeal to male metalheads with too much testosterone. Silent Night, Bodom Night had the entire room bouncing up and down together, and showed Bodom at their death melodic best.

The band never lose their sense of humour on stage, despite always going out on long and exhausting tours, and always entertain themselves and the crowd with some daft tune on Janne Warman's odd looking keyboards. This tour's choice was the Dallas theme tune, before a resounding blast of Hate Me that had the crowd screaming along in unison, needing little prompting. Children of Decadence changed into Bodom After Midnight, medley style and things had really started to warm up a bit by this stage. There's plenty of interaction on stage around Laiho, with bassist Henkka Blacksmith and rhythm guitarist Roope Latvala looking the part and having some fun with each other, the audience and Laiho. Alexi regaled the crowd with a short story for the introduction of Blooddrunk, dedicating it to “his boy on the drums, Jaska Raati-f***ing-kainen”, who was so drunk the other night he fell out of his bunk three times, smashed his head open and picked up a black eye. In Your Face and Angels Don't Kill indicated we were nearing the end before a Lake Bodom & Bodom Beach Terror medley and I felt it was only just really started to heat up.

Despite Laiho only being a pixie sized 2 foot 6 tall, he doesn't look it... a true mark of a star, when they make themselves look bigger on stage. He went walkabout in the pit, and regularly took the stance of a perfect lead guitarist when not singing. His shredding was as totally awesome as ever; spellbinding to watch.

For the encore keyboardist Janne joked with the crowd that he knew what it's like to be a kebab, the huge vertical LED lights surrounding him indeed looking like they were frying him. Alexi tells him to shut the f*** up and they finish the set with total favourites Bed of Razors and Hate Crew Deathroll, with the crowd going bananas.

Truthfully, it wasn't quite the best I've seen Bodom over the years, they just seemed a little jaded at the start and going through the motions. But the last six songs clicked and they were completely stunning towards the end. They energised me and made me remember what it's like to watch a band that make you feel alive and emotional.

A heaving, sweaty and very blood drunk happy crowd crawled out of Rock City having seen one of the best metal bands in the world right now.

by Lynn Wyeth