Something Wild is the debut album by Finnish heavy metal band Children of Bodom, released in 1997.
Track listing[]
- "Deadnight Warrior" – 3:22
- "In The Shadows" – 6:01
- "Red Light In My Eyes (Part 1) – 4:28
- "Red Light In My Eyes (Part 2) – 3:50
- "Lake Bodom" – 4:02
- "The Nail" – 6:18
- "Touch Like Angel Of Death" - 7:47 (song ends at 4:05 followed by silence and then a 1:20 seconds long keyboard outro)
Reissue
- "Silent Scream" (Slayer cover) - 3:17
- "Don't Stop At The Top" (Scorpions cover) - 3:24
- "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".
Review[]
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.