Ever since I saw Children of Bodom blow Slayer off the stage at this summer’s Unholy Alliance tour, I was gunning for another opportunity to see them live. Christmas came early, so to speak: COB announced in the fall that they’d be coming back to New York at the head of a tour on December 17 at the Nokia Theatre. As it turns out, it might have been better if Bodom had held off their return for a bit – coming back after 14 months on the road, the Children of Bodom I saw wasn’t quite the Children of Bodom I was expecting. All wasn’t lost, however…
Gojira Stomps Through the Start
After a late start, I arrived in Times Square just in time to catch the start of Gojira's set - and I feel I'm a better person for it. The French progressive death metal band wowed me with their stage presence and overall performance abilities and their chops as a band are both solid and technically respectable. For those of you familiar with the show Metalocalypse on Comedy Central's Adult Swim, seeing Gojira play, especially when they went into a synchronized Windmill, was a bit like seeing Dethklok live - in other words, very, very cool. I'll definitely make a point of seeing Gojira again when they come back to New York.
See pictures of Gojira from this show.
Amon Amarth, Men of Viking Metal
Before they even hit the stage, Amon Amarth (full disclosure: I was on Amon Amarth’s guest list for the evening) had two things going for them: they play songs about Vikings (about as metal a topic as possible) and their most recent album, With Oden on Our Side, is one of the best albums they’ve put together to date. Taking full advantage of the positive reaction to their recent release, the death metal band launched into “Valhall Awaits Me” to start their set and didn’t really look back.
On stage, Amon Amarth is intense to watch and no member more so than frontman Johan Hegg, who sports both a full, ZZ Top-length beard and a carved drinking horn that he uses over the more pedestrian water bottle. Striding across the stage, microphone in hand, bellowing like some sort of Norse giant (if Norse giants played in metal bands), Hegg did such a good job that the audience rewarded him by spontaneously breaking into a chant of his name in between songs. Given their growing success in the States – enough people knew the new album for Hegg to engage in a rarely heard (at a death metal show) duet with the crowd during “The Pursuit of Vikings” – I have no doubt that Amon Amarth will be headlining their own US tour very soon.
See pictures of Amon Amarth from this show.
Enter the Hate Crew Deathroll
Finally, the moment I’d been anticipating for months: Children of Bodom hit the stage to do a full set. Drawing on a good mix of their entire catalog, the list of songs included crowd favorites like “Needled 24/7,” “Sixpounder” and “Angels Don’t Kill” but also tossed in selection new to US live shows: “Children of Decadence,” “Mask of Sanity” and “Children of Bodom.” The favorable reaction to anything Bodom played shows that the Finnish band’s constant appearance on this side of the Atlantic over the past three years is paying big dividends: Children of Bodom’s reputation as a phenomenal live band is starting to take hold and more and more people want to come out and see them play.
Children of Bodom: Not Quite Living up to Expectations
Unfortunately, that night was not their night to shine. Already following excellent performances from Gojira and Amon Amarth, Bodom seemed sloppy and tired in their playing and many of the elements present in both their June show in New Jersey and their live recordings didn’t make their way to the stage at the Nokia: stage antics were kept to a minimum, there were no real extended solo or duet sections and overall the band looked a bit lost. Although the band is too professional to mail in a performance, frontman Alexi Laiho hinted at the problem when he told the crowd the band had been on tour for 14 months – a long, long time to be on the road, no matter who you are.
See pictures of Children of Bodom from this show.
