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"FUCK YEAH!!! This kicks all forms of ass!!!." These were my exact thoughts the first time I listened to this album. I had never heard any of their previous work outside of the few MP3's that I had downloaded. I had liked what I heard from the downloads so I decided to go ahead and purchase the album (so kiss my ass all you people that say MP3 is not good advertising. Can you hear me Mr. Ullrich?). Needless to say the very day that I got Follow the Reaper I got online and ordered their other two albums "Hatebreeder" and "Something Wild". I don't go more than a few days without listening to at least one of their albums and most of the time I just put all three in and just hit shuffle.

The hard part is trying to describe the style of metal that COB play. Since a review is supposed to give you an idea of what to expect I would have to say that COB play power/thrash metal with symphonic elements and growling style black metal vocals. If this isn't helpful enough all I can say is buy the album anyway…you won't be disappointed.

COB play what I like to call the big stupid riff. Let me clarify. I am not saying that the music is stupid it just has riffs that are not overly difficult to play but they just get your head banging and bring a big smile to your face. This is still a small part of what COB bring to the table. This band has an enormous amount of talent starting with Alexi Laiho (vocals and guitars) who is the main man in the songwriting department as well as one hell of a lead guitarist. Alexander Kuoppala (guitars) adds the kick ass rhythm work. Henkka T. Blacksmith (bass) and Jaska Raatikainen (drums) offer up the backbone of the band. The Keyboard work is done by Janne Warmen and I think he has never sounded better. He adds another dimension to the band especially on this album as the keyboards take a much larger roll than on their previous releases. Don't get me wrong the music is still guitar driven but the keyboards trade off with Alexi's leads with leads of their own along with adding the atmospheric elements they did I the past. Overall Janne's work is just excellent.

The highlight for me personally o this album is Alexi's guitar work. He is a great technical guitar player as well as beig extremely clean. His solo's are so clear you can actually easily pick out individual notes even at the speed he is playing. His use of harmonics just adds that extra touch that brings it all to life.

Anyone that has not heard this band do yourself a favor and at the very least pick up Follow the Reaper if not all three of their studio releases. I am 99.9% sure that any metal fan that can appreciate something besides blastbeats will love this album.

Track by track
What's the point? There isn't one weak track on the entire album.

Ratings

VOCALS-7.5
GUITARS-10
BASS-9
DRUMS-9
KEYBOARDS-9.5
PRODUCTION-9