LIVE REPORT: Children Of Bodom – Shepherd’s Bush Empire, London – 12th March 2017                                                                                                                                                              by Carina Lawrence

Finnish Melodic metallers, Children Of Bodom party hard for their two decade milestone!
Children Of Bodom have impressively been delivering their mixed metal genre, comprised of elements of extreme, power, symphonic and neoclassical for twenty years now and are one of Finland’s finest and bestselling metal artists for their efforts. The band decided to celebrate their hefty two decade reign with the fans on their ‘Down & Dirty’ tour…
It is a pretty packed venue for a Sunday night in London’s 02 Shepherd’s Bush Empire which is a well-known music venue, with a beautiful interior and the perfect place to host the bands night of glory and merry atmosphere…
They fittingly take us back to the very beginning opening with a song from their debut 1998 album ‘Something Wild’ launching straight into chaos with ‘Deadnight Warrior’ which immediately gets the crowd going wild, especially following their impatience before the band came out, chanting ‘Bodom!’ to summon them. Sticking with their debut they churn out ‘In The Shadows’ after this. They treat us to many songs from their first offering later in to the set also with, ‘Red Light In My Eyes,Pt 2’, ‘Lake Bodom’, and also revisit it in the encore with ‘The Nail’.

There isn’t much talking from lead guitarist/vocalist, Alex Laiho, as he appears so eager to let loose and play, to simply revel playing endless skilled guitar solo with slick ease, with no complaints from the crowds. When he does briefly talk he is filled with gratitude for the crowd participation and carnage unfolding.
The played a range of brilliant songs spanning their twenty year career as you would expect, including the ever popular ‘Needled 24/7’, ‘Downfall’, ‘Everytime I Die’, ‘Hate Me’. There was however a lack of songs taken from some of their latest albums, such as their current and ninth album with 2015’s ‘I Worship Chaos’ and the previous album, ‘Halo Of Blood’, but seeing as they have nine albums, they can’t play them all, and every single song they plucked out with furious speed went down a storm anyway – these dedicated and mad fans were hungry for any Bodom songs!
Other songs they graced us with came largely from their 2000 album, ‘Follow The Reaper’ with classic likes ‘Bodom After Midnight’ and ‘Children Of Decadence’. The end this triumphant show fittingly they go out playing ‘Towards Dead End’.

For a Sunday night this was mental in terms of the turn out and the energy. The band seemed very conscious and considerate of fans handing out lots of water to the people at the front of the hectic and sweaty pits! There was a lot of crowd surfing, or at least many attempts of this before security stopped them in their glorious plight, expressing their gratitude for the band, along with plenty of head banging, some great circle pits and just general antics – even in the seated areas some fans struggled to stay to their seats, frantically getting up to bounce around and go nuts, showing that all fans were fully engaged and hanging on to every note. They absolutely slayed with all the guitar and keyboard solos especially, that are amazing to witness, with the crowd appreciating each and every one, which there is certainly no shortage off! This was an epic night which left everyone buzzing through their high intensity, energetic and unforgettable performance!

Score: 5/5

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