Something Wild (album)

Untitled

Something Wild is the debut album by Finnish heavy metal band Children of Bodom, released in 1997.

The album presents a darker and generally more experimental sound than the one present in their later albums, and contributed most to the infamous genre controversy of their classification as a death metal or black metal band at the time (in an interview, Darkthrone's Fenriz was asked on what he felt about "so-called black metal bands like Cradle of Filth and Children of Bodom, to which Fenriz replied that he "hadn't heard CoB", and that he had "no comment" about Cradle of Filth); obviously a lot of black metal was present due to Alexi Laiho's stint in Impaled Nazarene and his self-professed "roots being in black metal".

In a recent interview Laiho claims that the band at the time were inspired by "a lot of black and death metal bands" such as Dissection and Hypocrisy as well as classic rock/metal bands like the Scorpions, and that many other new bands in the scene were "trying to sound like Dimmu Borgir", leading to them wanting to do something "different". Laiho had gone on to consider the album their "most important", as it "put us on the map".

It was held in high praise amongst metal fans in the Finnish underground metal scene at the time, topping charts all over the country, and sparking their international fame everywhere in the underground metal scene as "That metal band from Finland." The song-writing in this album is much more free-flowing and the use of keyboards and strong neo-classical metal influences are much more prevalent than in future releases such as Hatebreeder or Follow the Reaper.

The "Deluxe Edition" was released much later in 2002 and includes bonus material.

Track listing

All tracks are written by Alexi Laiho

No.	Title	Length
1.	"Deadnight Warrior"	3:22
2.	"In The Shadows"	6:01
3.	"Red Light In My Eyes (Part 1)"	4:28
4.	"Red Light In My Eyes (Part 2)"	3:50
5.	"Lake Bodom"	4:02
6.	"The Nail"	6:18
7.	"Touch Like Angel Of Death" (song ends at 4:05 followed by silence and then a 1:20 second long keyboard outro)	7:47

Reissue

No.	Title	Length
8.	"Silent Scream" (Slayer cover)	3:17
9.	"Don't Stop At The Top" (Scorpions cover)	3:24
10.	"Mass Hypnosis" (Sepultura cover)	4:07

Spinefarm Digipack re-release bonus tracks

No.	Title	Length
8.	"Children of Bodom" (track also appeared on the 'Children of Bodom' split)	5:10
9.	"Mass Hypnosis" (Sepultura cover)	4:07

The 2008 edition of the album does contain the hidden keyboard solo that was originally at the end of "Touch Like Angel of Death", but it is at the end of the bonus song "Mass Hypnosis".

Album information

• Produced by A. Kippo, A. Laiho, J. Raatikainen and Children of Bodom.
• Recorded and Mixed at Astia Studio by Anssi Kippo in July/August 1997.
• Cover artwork by Graham French.

Trivia

• The CD booklet contains the lyrics to the CD's last song, "Touch Like Angel of Death". The hidden keyboard song on track 7 is from the television show Miami Vice and was performed by Alexi Laiho and Alexander Kuoppala while they were drunk in the studio. In reissues however, the hidden keyboard song follows "Mass Hypnosis".
• The opening of the song "Deadnight Warrior" is a sound clip from the TV adaptation of Stephen King's "It."
• The opening of the song "The Nail" is extracted from the movies Ben-Hur (speech) and A Nightmare on Elm Street (sound).
• The intro of "Red Light In My Eyes Part 1" Is J.S. Bach's Invention 13.
• The intro of "Red Light in My Eyes, Part 2" is the first theme from Mozart's Symphony No. 25, and the song's refrain uses the first few bars of the "Confutatis" section of Mozart's Requiem.
• A riff in "The Nail" is one of the themes from J.S. Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D Minor, BWV 565, and the last few measures in the song's cadence closely resembles the cadence from Yngwie Malmsteen's "Far Beyond The Sun". In addition, the song's opening riff very closely resembles the opening riff of the song "Vengeance" by Nuclear Assault on their album Game Over. A riff at the 4 minute mark of the same song also bears strong resemblance to a series of riffs from Dissection's "Where Dead Angels Lie".
• The verse riff of "In The Shadows" closely resembles the first and main riff in Darkthrone's Transilvanian Hunger. Also, from 4:21 begins a keyboard and guitar interlude which bears huge resemblance to Bathory's "One Rode To Asa Bay".
• In the original version of the album, there is a hidden 8th track called "Bruno the Pig." It is just 10 seconds of silence.

Personnel

• Alexi Laiho - lead vocals, lead guitar
• Alexander Kuoppala - rhythm guitar
• Janne Warman - keyboards
• Henkka Seppälä - bass
• Jaska Raatikainen - drums