Hexed

Hexed is a late-period tour de force on which CHILDREN OF BODOM again foregrounded slashing guitar, high-speed interplay with the keyboards, and rough vocals. While the riffs have a thrash-like sharpness, the leads emit the cold glow of Nordic melody, and the songs do not lose their outline even as they run fiercely. As it turned out, it became the last studio album for the band and for Alexi Laiho. On “This Road,” “Hexed” and “Under Grass and Clover,” the keyboards are not mere ornament but, competing with the guitar, amplify the speed and color of the phrases. Songs like “Glass Houses,” “Platitudes and Barren Words” and “Soon Departed” breathe the band’s full playing too. Rather than reproducing young impulse, they show the sharpness of playing polished over a long career, from both roughness and pathos. It is a record that resonates strongly with listeners who seek extreme speed and the pleasure of melody at once.