CHILDREN OF BODOM

The Royale
Boston, Massachusetts
April 17, 2019

Photos & Review by Michael LaFleche

The Children of Bodom, an extreme metal band, hailing from Finland arrived in Boston Wednesday night. The “Hexed” tour included several other metal bands including Summoner’s Circle, Wolfheart and Swallow the Sun. The Royale club in Boston’s Theatre District played host to the event, which is actually a great venue for a metal show with a large stage, extravagant lighting and great sound.

SUMMONER’S CIRCLE

First band due up was Summoner’s Circle, a theatrical metal band that is a mashup of black, doom and death metal. Appropriately, an audience member had his throat slit on stage as a sacrifice to begin the show (No actual fans were harmed of course) The band consists of Blind on Vocals and Incantations, Gog onLead Guitar, Absalon hammering on Rhythm Guitar as well as Y’takt on Bass, Hex on the Organ and Frix2 on the drum kit. Hailing from the planet Mercury, the band’s fusion of metal, theatrics, and dark themes made for a great opening set.

WOLFHEART

Next was the energetic hard metal band Wolfheart, from Finland. Tuomas Saukkonen on lead Guitar and Vocals, Mika Lammassaari also on Lead guitar, Joonas Kauppinen on the Drums and the exciting bass player Lauri Silvonen. Extremely strong on stage presence, Saukkonen on guitar and lead vocals reminded me of a more symphonic version of James Hetfield, right down to the guitar work. The band played from their latest album CONSTELLATION OF THE BLACK LIGHT”as well as from the catalogue of the last 8 years.

SWALLOW THE SUN

Switching the sound up was Swallow the Sun, also in Finland, whose music was very introspective and subdued, yet hard, with dark themes, lyrics and sound. Reminiscent of early Alice in Chains, lead singer, Mikko Kotamäki lead the packed house with pure emotional poetry. Long time lead guitarist Juha Raivio, fellow bandmate Matti Honkonen on the bass and Juuso Raatikainen drumming with Juho Räihä on rhythm guitar and Jaani Peuhu on the keyboards. As the set went on the energy did pick up with the fanbase actually rocking their fists in the hair in unison.

And the cap off the night, Children of Bodom took to the large smoke filled stage with a huge drum kit and backlight screen with their logo. The band has been going strong since 1993 and has a very strong thrash element to it mixed with an almost Dream Theatre like quality. The band consists of lead vocalist and guitarist Alexi Laiho, bassist Henkka T. Blacksmith, Jaska Raatikainen hammering the massive drum kit, the very fun and entertaining Janne Wirman on the upside down keyboards and Daniel Freyberg on rhythm guitar.

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The bands tour features some work from their latest effort Hexed, their tenth album. Fact: they are one of the best selling Finnish acts of time. You could see why as the band took to the stage with their high energy music. Some of the fan favorites included “I worship Chaos”, “Are You Dead Yet (the opening song), and “Angels Don’t Kill”, which featured well orchestrated melodic guitar work)”

Finland (And Mercury) have a lot to offer the metal world obviously. I had never had the chance to listen to their work until recently, but I encourage you to give all the bands featured here on the tour some attention.