CHILDREN OF BODOM's LAIHO, WIRMAN Offer 'Blooddrunk' Track-By-Track Breakdown

UK's Metal Hammer magazine flew to Helsinki to interview Finnish metallers CHILDREN OF BODOM recently to get the lowdown on their new album, "Blooddrunk". Frontman Alexi Laiho and keyboard player Janne Wirman were on hand to spill the beans.

1. Hellhounds On My Trail

Alexi: It isn't literally about beasts from the pits of Hell chasing you. It's about stupid things that youve done in the past that come back to haunt you. Whatever. At the end you still don't give a fuck!

Janne: Musically, it has become one of my favourites. In rehearsals you dont really hear his (Alexi) vocals but after everything got put together I became a fan of the first song.

2. Blooddrunk

Alexi: It's about being addicted to spilling your own blood. When I was younger, ten years ago I used to cut myself and all that shit. It's not necessarily just about cutting yourself but about other things you do to yourself and you don't know why. That's the theme of the album.

Janne: It is the first song since our debut album that has that triplet thing, so it feels really fresh musically.

3. LoBodomy

Janne: This is the most difficult to play. It's very aggressive. It's kind of progressive and all that shit.

Alexi: The whole song is super fucking angry. It's got that vibe to it: "These guys are super fucking pissed off!"

4. One Day You Will Cry

Janne: That was one of my favorites from the beginning.

Alexi: Same here. It's very melodic and so forth but it's also like a punch in the face. Especially with this song, I'm really happy with the vocals. It came out like world music! (starts laughing)

Janne: Compared to some of our other stuff, it's almost like pop music! But it's cool.

5. Smile Pretty For The Devil

Janne: It's based on a female character we know and that's all I can say! Is it about sexual perversion? I wish.

6. Tie My Rope (new version)

Janne: We didn't have that much interest in doing this song because we'd already recorded it once for this Bam Margera compilation "Viva La Bands Vol. 2". Even though it's a good song, it feels like there is no challenge left.

Alexi: But I definitely feel that the new version is better.

7. Done With Everything, Die For Nothing

Alexi: It was nothing but trouble this song. We went through a million riffs and a million fucking arrangements and it always sounded like fucking shit no matter what we tried to do. And then we finally got it down but even in the studio it was a fucking drag. It was always missing something. Even after recording it we had to go back to it and change it again. But then finally we got the new chorus and it all fell into place.

Janne: Before that it sounded like a parody of black metal!

8. Banned From Heaven

Alexi: This is my favorite to play. It is our slow song. It's like an old-school death metal ballad! It's very melodic, it's got a lot of rhythm and bass riffs on it.

9. Roadkill Morning

Alexi: We never had any extra songs, we put everything on the album but this time around we did actually have ten songs but we joined two of them together to become "Roadkill Morning" the last song on the album about having a hangover. When you get up and you feel like you've been hit by a truck. Luckily, the two songs had a similar kind of rhythm!

"Blooddrunk" is scheduled for release in Europe on April 7, 2008 via Spinefarm Records (two days later in Finland). The CD was recorded and produced by Mikko Karmila at Petrax and Finnvox studios in Finland during October, November and December 2007, except vocals, which were recorded by Peter Tägtren, and keyboards, which were recorded by Janne Wirman at Petrax studios, Finland, during October, November and December 2007. The CD was mixed at Finnvox by Mikko Karmila in November 2007 and it was mastered at Finnvox by Mika Jussila in December 2007.

CHILDREN OF BODOM will release a new single, "Blooddrunk", in Finland on February 27, 2008 (March 3 in the rest of Europe).

The band recently traveled to Germany to film two videos, both of which were produced by Katapult Filmproduktion.

CHILDREN OF BODOM will join MEGADETH, IN FLAMES, JOB FOR A COWBOY and HIGH ON FIRE for this year's Gigantour in North America.

The second episode of CHILDREN OF BODOM's COBTV takes the viewers to Petrax Studios in Hollola, Finland for special coverage of the recording sessions for "Blooddrunk". Watch the six-minute clip below.