Children Of Bodom/ Eluveitie/ Revocation/Threat Signal

My day did not allow the time to get to the show early enough to see openers Threat Signal and Revocation.

While not too different, Switzerland’s Eluveitie, part of the pagan/folk metal sound (and the like Finntroll, Ensiferum, Korpiklaani, Turisas) , offer up some contrast to Bodom’s contemporary combination of thrash and extreme metal. Depending on the tune they alternate between aggressive guitars, sometimes fast, arrangements using both a male deep death metal vocal with a melodic female, and folk sounds created by mandola, whistles, bagpipes (by Patrick Kistler) , hurdy gurdy (by Anna Murphy), violin (by Meri Tadic), gaita, and acoustic guitar. Kinda like a folkish pagan melodic death metal. The single ‘A Rose For Epona’, off their latest album “Helvetios”, features Anna taking the lead vocal and Chrigel Glanzmann (who is most of the time the lead) providing a few low end growls for some contrast without over doing it. The crowd knew Eluveitie’s songs pretty well and they received positive feedback in the form of consistent singing along and moshing during their set.

Finland’s Children Of Bodom celebrate 15 years of making music taking a setlist on the road that includes many of the songs from their forthcoming best of titled “Holiday at Lake Bodom (15 Years of Wasted Youth)”. Alexi Laiho (lead vocals, lead guitar), rhythm guitarist Roope Latvala, Jaska Raatikainen (drums), bassist Henkka Seppälä, and Janne Wirman (keyboards) made sure to include all the staples from over the years like ‘Sixpounder’, ‘Are You Dead Yet’, ‘Silent Night, Bodom Night’, ‘Everytime I Die’, ‘Hate Me’, ‘Hate Crew Deathroll’, and ‘Downfall’, while dusting off the excellent ‘Lake Bodom’ and ‘Deadnight Warrior’ off the debut “Something Wild” and ‘Kissing The shadows” from “Follow The Reaper”. A basic backdrop and a couple of fans blowing around some shredded cloths hung from the ceiling were a nice touch keeping the focus on the band and performance which as usual was not short on energy as the guys ran around having fun with each other and the crowd who were as amped up as they. With fifteen well earned successful years behind them, seven studio, two live albums and a DVD, doesn’t seem like the reaper has an end for these guys anytime soon.

Eluveitie:
Everything Remains As It Never Was
Nil
Kingdom Come Undone
Havoc
A Rose for Epona
Meet the Enemy
(Do)Minion
Quoth the Raven
Inis Mona

Children of Bodom:
Sixpounder
Are You Dead Yet?
Silent Night, Bodom Night
Kissing the Shadows
Shovel Knockout
Living Dead Beat
Everytime I Die
Deadnight Warrior
Hate Me
Blooddrunk
Angels Don't Kill
In Your Face
Lake Bodom
Hate Crew Deathroll
Bodom After Midnight
Downfall