Ahead of their new album entitled ‘Hexes’, Finish metallers Children of Bodom have released their third single entitled ‘Platitudes and Barren Words’. Set of release on the 8th of March via Nuclear Blast Records, ‘Hexes’ will the bands tenth full length studio album.
Seeing the band return to Finland’s Danger Johnny Studios to record the follow-up album to 2015’s ‘I Worship Chaos’, for ‘Hexes’, the band decided to return once more to long term producer Mikko Karmila. Known for helping to shape their recent ‘I Worship Chaos’ and ‘Halo of Blood’ albums, Karmila also handled recording duties putting everything to tape except for the keyboards. For the Keys, Janne Wirman recorded his parts at Finland’s Beyond Abilities Studios.
In speaking about the new album bassist Henkka Seppälä stated that, For me, it has always been very hard to describe our new music. In a way, it always feels familiar, but the new stuff also always surprises me. Here we have something that's very BODOM, but somehow we haven't done this kind of stuff, possibly ever. Then again, someone said that there's a somewhat similar vibe to what 'Follow The Reaper' had. I don't know. Anyway, we had a really hard time choosing the songs for the videos. I guess that's a positive problem to have’.
Additionally, guitarist Alexi Laiho shared that, ‘People have said that this album is generally catchier. So I started thinking about that, perhaps the song structures are easier to grasp on initial listen. But there’s some crazy shit in there – almost progressive or at least technical. There are certain melodies across the album that could have come from jazz songs, although they’re completely metal with us, of course!’
For this album’s album art, the band have enlisted artist Denis Forkas known for his work with Orthodox, Wolves In The Thorne Room as well as many more. In speaking about the album art, Henkka states that, ‘For some years I've wanted to try a different approach with our cover art. We are so used to digital art, so it's really hard to do something else. Doing it completely with a computer is somewhat safe and convenient. This time we all agreed to try going old school. We found this cool dude and gave him simple instructions — the cover has to be purple and the reaper has to be central. Half a year later, we got his work, and with little tweaking, we now have the cover of 'Hexed'. It is very different from what we are used to, even the Reaper looks different, but at the same time very spooky.’
Excited about the unveiling of the new single, Laiho stated that, ‘This one has been a lot of people’s favourite song since day one and when you think about it, every single part of it is catchy as hell so it makes sense. Can’t wait to play it live.’
Be sure to catch the video below and watch out for the release of ‘Hexes’ next week on the 8th of March.