Children Of Bodom "Follow The Reaper"

Follow the Reaper is the third studio album by Finnish melodic death metal band Children of Bodom, released in Finland in October 2000 by Spinefarm Records and in February 2001 internationally by Nuclear Blast Records.

The album is the first to use a power metal-influenced sound in addition to the black metal and symphonic metal elements from previous albums—present mainly in the keyboards, vocals, and fast tempos. Many songs on the album became live setlist favorites, such as "Everytime I Die", "Hate Me!", and the title track. The song "Mask of Sanity" is a remake of the song "Talking of the Trees" from their early demo Shining (released as IneartheD).

Follow the Reaper was recorded and mixed at Peter Tägtgren's Abyss studio in Sweden, instead of the Finnish Astia-studio from Anssi Kippo, in which they had recorded all of their previous releases, including the demos from IneartheD. On this album, Children of Bodom used D standard tuning (D,G,C,F,A,D), which was also used on Hatebreeder.

The album features sampled quotes from the 1990 film The Exorcist III.

A deluxe edition featuring two bonus tracks was released in 2006.

Track listing

All tracks written by Alexi Laiho.

1. "Follow the Reaper" 3:47
2. "Bodom After Midnight" 3:43
3. "Children of Decadence" 5:33
4. "Everytime I Die" 4:02
5. "Mask of Sanity" 3:58
6. "Taste of My Scythe" 3:58
7. "Hate Me!" 4:44
8. "Northern Comfort" 3:47
9. "Kissing the Shadows" 4:32

Reissue bonus tracks

1. "Don't Stop at the Top" (Scorpions cover) Scorpions 3:24

Japan reissue bonus tracks

1. "Shot in the Dark" (Ozzy Osbourne cover) Ozzy Osbourne, Phil Soussan 3:38
2. "Hellion" (W.A.S.P. cover) Blackie Lawless 3:02

Nuclear Blast deluxe edition bonus tracks

1. "Hellion" (W.A.S.P. cover) 3:02
2. "Aces High" (Iron Maiden cover) Steve Harris 4:30

Re-release bonus tracks

1. "Hate Me!" (Original single version) 4:47
2. "Hellion" (W.A.S.P. cover) 3:02

Trivia:

-The samples used on tracks 1 and 6 are from The Exorcist III (1990).

-The bridge on track 2 is inspired by the soundtrack to The Rock (1996).

-Some sections of track 5 are recycled from "Talking of the Trees" off of Inearthed's final demo: Shining.

-Two different mixes exist, featuring minor aesthetic differences.

The Nuclear Blast and Mystic Production releases contain a different mix. The first mix was done by Peter Tagtgren in the Abyss studio soon after the recording. It can be heard only on the Nuclear Blast releases (Europe & USA). Later on, the band wanted to change some small things and gave the album to the hands of Mikko Karmila who did some additional treatment for it. We call this the 2nd mix and it can be heard on the Spinefarm (Finland), Toy's Factory (Japan), FONO (Russia/CIS-States) and One Music (South Korea) releases. But there aren't any big changes. Biggest ones are:

- Follow The Reaper - 0:37 - 2nd mix has no scream, 1st mix does.

- Hate Me! - 2:58 - 1st mix has church bells, 2nd mix doesn't.

- Northern Comfort - 1:43 - 1st mix has vocals here that were removed in the 2nd mix.

Music videos:

-Everytime I Die.

Recording information:

Recorded and mixed at Abyss Studios, Sweden in August-September 2000.

Produced by Peter Tagtgren, co-produced by Children of Bodom.

Mastered at Finnvox Studios, Helsinki, Finland by Mika "Count" Jussila.