I think it's fucked up and dumb how Bodom have suddenly become disliked by the underground community (and by many on this forum). What have they done wrong?
They're music still sounds great with nice production and a beat to headbang too. They are definately not mainstream (not in the UK anyway) and their sound has differed little. So why the aggro?
Or is this another one where the old fans who listened to them at the start want the music to sound like Hatebreeder for evera and ever and resent that a band could ever change against their wishes, ie - Fuck you
Change is a good thing. Without it, Therion would still be average death metal, The Gathering would be crappy doom with a wailing girl, Cradle of Filth would still be good and BM fans would have one less thing to complain about, In Flames would still be good and DM fans would have one less thing to complain about, and of course we'd all be in caves hitting rocks together and listening to shitty old Pink Floyd or Led Zeppelin.
Ok, maybe change can be a bad thing and a good thing.
I am not going to get into it, but I am pretty sure you are the only person who I ever heard say early Therion and The Gathering are crap? You really think the first 3 Therion albums and Mandylion are crap?
Anyways I am lucky enough that I like all of their incarnations but Bodom has never really changed that much IMO, just toned it down on the gay keyboard overload some of the years.