Review Summary: Bodom's debut is disappointingly brief, yet very enjoyable thanks to the incorporation of various musical styles, enthusiastic guitar work and a smooth overall flow to the tracks.
Children of Bodom aren’t exactly a band that one would call “subtle.” The group has primarily been known for having a rather blunt and in your face (no pun intended) nature to their songs (especially in their recent releases). Though they’ve always exhibited a very direct music style, the band’s debut album Something Wild shows the band in a different light which can easily be argued as a better overall sound as opposed to their post-Follow the Reaper efforts.
Opening with one of the band’s many derived audio clips from films, “Deadnight Warrior” quickly escalates into a fast track over almost as quickly as it starts. The following song, “In the Shadows,” has a more prolonged sound and structure, barely passing the six minute mark. Serving as a double track offering if you will, both “Red Light in My Eyes” parts alternate between slow and frantic speeds that keep you guessing. “Lake Bodom” has an instantly identifiable intro that persists throughout a well-paced track. The longest track on the album, “The Nail” is at first (after the voice intro) uninteresting but the relentless guitar playing help it stand back up. Finally, “Touch Like Angel of Death” is another solid, quick and well-paced track that has an interesting keyboard outro about two minutes after the regular track ends.
What Children of Bodom brought to the table with Something Wild was a fairly unique style, one that derived various cues from other genres. This album was just the beginning of what would ultimately make the band tough to label genre-wise for many. Although the core sound is melodic death metal, other influences can be found here, such as neo-classical and black metal, but not to the point of them dominating the overall manner of the tracks. What this helps give the album over its successors is a sense of atmosphere and darkness that would ultimately vanish starting with Hate Crew Deathroll. Also present is a smoother flow to the songs as opposed to the band’s work starting on and after the aforementioned album, especially on “In the Shadows.”
The musicianship here is a key part of what helps the album stand out very well. Lead guitarist and vocalist Alexi Laiho has earned quite a name for himself in the metal community, and his work here is as impressive as anything else he’s recorded. His guitar style on the album is very quick and frantic, barely taking the time to slow down. As for Laiho’s vocal style, he might not be the best at extreme vocals, but they fit the kinetic nature of the music, which helps give the music a natural feel most of the time. Keyboardist Janne Warman primarily plays the role of adding atmosphere to the music, though still gives the songs a mechanical sound that would become more and more prominent in the future. Jaska Raatikainen provides solid drum work here, having enough fast, enthusiastic moments to be worthy of mention. But the album has a distinct lack of strong bass guitar work, save for a couple brief moments on select songs.
What’s most unfortunate about Something Wild is its length: it’s simply too short with only seven tracks, four of them coming out to around four minutes each, two being in the six minute range and the other being just under three. Granted, the album is paced very well altogether, but as mentioned earlier, “Touch Like Angel of Death” is an rather abrupt conclusion (unless you listen to the chilling keyboard outro) which will likely leave many saying “that’s it?”
Something Wild manages to utilize its potential and strengths very well and, other than its disappointingly short runtime, is a strong effort. The generally frantic and exciting nature of the band is very evident, especially from the always zealous Alexi Laiho. If you ever long for a fast yet eerie listening or want a great, brief set of tracks, you won’t find a much better solution than this.
