''Paint the Sky with Blood'' is the only EP by Finnish melodic death metal band

Bodom After Midnight Children of Bodom was a Finnish melodic death metal band from Espoo. Formed in 1993 as Inearthed, the final line-up of the group upon their split in 2019 consisted of frontman Alexi Laiho, drummer Jaska Raatikainen, bassist Henkka Seppälä, key ...

, the short-lived follow-up project to

Children of Bodom Children of Bodom was a Finnish melodic death metal band from Espoo. Formed in 1993 as Inearthed, the final line-up of the group upon their split in 2019 consisted of frontman Alexi Laiho, drummer Jaska Raatikainen, bassist Henkka Seppälä, ...

, released on 23 April 2021 through

Napalm Records Napalm Records is an Austrian independent record label focused on heavy metal, hard rock and folk/folk rock/folk metal. Originally, Napalm focused on black metal bands, such as Abigor and Summoning, and folk metal bands, such as Falkenbach a ...

. The EP consists of three songs recorded in November 2020 before frontman Alexi Laiho's death the following month, when the band was about to enter the process of writing and recording material for the follow-up, the debut full-length album originally set for late 2021 release. In February 2021, it was announced the EP would be released as planned. As no more songs were written and the remaining members decided to not continue without Laiho, this is the sole release by the band. The music video for the title song "Paint the Sky with Blood", which was filmed 10 days before Laiho's death, was released on 30 March 2021. The EP was released as CD, 10" vinyl and digital download. A total of eight different vinyl versions were available, most of which are limited editions. The Japanese CD edition, released through Ward Records, includes a bonus DVD featuring the music video of "Paint the Sky with Blood".

Reception

The EP received generally favorable reviews from critics. Dom Lawson of ''

Metal Hammer ''Metal Hammer'' is a heavy metal music magazine and website founded in 1983, published in the United Kingdom by Future, with other language editions published by different companies available in numerous other countries. ''Metal Hammer'' featu ...

'' gave the EP 4 out of 5 stars, praising the energy and intensity of the songwriting and performances, as well as the production that adds "grandiloquent sonic swell" topping previous efforts in Laiho's catalogue. Similarly,

Metal Storm Metal Storm Limited was a research and development company based in Brisbane, Australia, that specialized in electronically initiated superposed load weapons technology and owned the proprietary rights to the electronic ballistics technology ...

praised the input of Toivonen and Väyrynen in its review, concluding Bodom After Midnight has "more weight behind its rhythm section" than

, "replacing some of that frenzied lawlessness with coordination, balance, and a full-bodied sound." Nick Terry of ''

Decibel The decibel (symbol: dB) is a relative unit of measurement equal to one tenth of a bel (B). It expresses the ratio of two values of a Power, root-power, and field quantities, power or root-power quantity on a logarithmic scale. Two signals whos ...

'' magazine compared the material to Laiho's earlier work with Children of Bodom, judging the EP to be "neither a disgrace nor a high point" of his career, noting that " hildren of Bodomfans will surely appreciate he songsas the bonus that they are."

Track listing

Personnel

Bodom After Midnight * Alexi Laiho – vocals, guitar * Daniel Freyberg – guitar *Mitja Toivonen – bass *Waltteri Väyrynen – drums Additional musicians *Vili Itäpelto – keyboards Production *Joonas Parkkonen – producer, engineering *Mikko Karmila – mixing *Mika Jussila – mastering * Travis Smith – artwork

Charts

References

{{Authority control Napalm Records albums 2021 EPs Children of Bodom EPs by Finnish artists