The band Children of Bodom: Alexander, Jaska, Janne, Henkka and Alexi Children of Bodom is a Finnish band from the town of Espoo which is one of the precursors of the melodic death metal style.
Biography
The band was founded in 1993 by guitarist Alexi "Wildchild" Laiho and drummer Jaska Raatikainen under the name of IneartheD. Having known each other since childhood and sharing the same interest for heavy/death metal bands such as Stone, Entombed and Obituary, they formed the original line-up of the band that would later become Children of Bodom together with bassist Samuli Miettinen.
Samuli was the main composer of the band's lyrics for the two years he took part of IneartheD, but in 1995 his family moved to the USA and there was no way for him to continue in the band. Alexi then assumed the role of the band's lyricist.
When Alexi and Jaska went to junior high, they got to know Henkka "Blacksmith" Seppälä, who became the band's new bass player.
Jaska played a French horn in a local big band at the time, and one day - during rehearsal - he met Alexander Kuoppala, who was a trumpet player and also a good guitarist. When the previous rhythm guitar player of IneartheD (who apparently spent a very short time in the band) quit, Alexander was invited to join and soon became an active member of the band.
For some time, Alexi and Jaska played and recorded the keyboard sections of IneartheD's songs separately and later mixed the keyboard track with the other instruments, but in 1996 they decided to add somebody to specialize in keyboards. This person was Jani Pirisjoki.
With this new line-up, IneartheD recorded their third demo, named Shining. This new demo didn't impress record labels much more than the previous ones (Implosion of Heaven from 1994 and Ubiquitous Absence of Remission from 1995) had, and no label took interest in the young Finnish band. It was a harsh time, in which - despite all of their efforts - their music got no exposure and they only managed to play at small events.
As a last resort, the band decided to record an independent album, funding all of the production costs themselves, a daring move considering that none of them had much money to begin with.
Alexi wanted to make use of the keyboards more effectively this time around, and Pirisjoki just wasn't fit for the task anymore. So he was fired from the band - albeit not in a hostile manner - and a friend of Jaska's, a talented pianist called Janne "Warman" Wirman, assumed the position of keyboard player.
Janne was the component that was missing for IneartheD to assume the style that would later characterize Children of Bodom. With him, the band successfully recorded their first album in the year of 1997 and got a professional deal from it. Their debut - Something Wild - was supposed to be released by a small Belgian label, but Sami Tenetz (from Thy Serpent) got hold of a copy of their album shortly after IneartheD signed this contract, and sent it to Spinefarm Records' boss, who immediately got interested in signing them for a country-wide release. The later deal was much more interesting for the band, since the Belgian label was offering them close to no help, in what Alexi calls a "rip-off deal".
For the band to be able to sign with Spinefarm Records, they were forced to change their name, since the contract with the Belgian label had already been signed under the name of IneartheD. The answer to that problem came as the bandmen looked for good names in their local phone book. When they stumbled upon Lake Bodom, they realised it was a name with impact; one which had an interesting story behind it. A long list of possible names involving the word Bodom was then made, and they settled with Children of Bodom.
The story of the Lake Bodom murders goes as follows: on the night of June the 4th of 1960, three teenagers were murdered while on a camping trip to the lake. There was a lone survivor, who remains in psychological treatment to this day. It has remained one of the most widely-discussed—and thus far, unsolved—cases in Scandinavian history.
The band then went on tour with Dimmu Borgir, with the intention of promoting the upcoming release of Something Wild, but their success was such that the Nuclear Blast label approached them with a contract for an European release in the following year.
Children of Bodom's first tour happened in February of 1998. They played together with Hypocrisy and a few other bands such as Covenant and Agathodaimon, but suffered from the absence of Janne, who was busy finishing his studies. He was replaced by Erna Siikavirta - a female pianist who is a friend of the band's, who curently plays with Lordi - for the duration of the tour.
Their second tour happened in September of the same year, but once more Janne was not able to play with them. Alexi's then-girlfriend Kimberly Goss (from Sinergy and ex-Dimmu Borgir and Therion) played with them this time around, continuing the interesting tradition of female replacements for Janne.
In 1999, Children of Bodom was finally able to tour with Janne on the keyboards, and the success of the Downfall single allowed them to make three shows in Japan with the veterans from In Flames and with Sinergy (Alexi's second band). In one of these shows, the album Tokyo Warhearts was recorded. The band - with only two albums recorded previously - managed to play a technically flawless concert, seamlessly reproducing and at times improving on their songs.
With their rapidly increasing success, Children of Bodom recorded two more albums, and their first complete world tour began in 2003 and lasted until late 2004. This tour had many sold-out concerts and was a defining point in their career, but it was also accompanied by an unexpected annoucement: Alexander decided to quit the band for personal reasons, giving no warning and right in the middle of the tour. Alexi's bandmate from Sinergy, Roope Latvala (founding member of Stone, one of the bands which started the heavy metal movement in Finland) then replaced him as a session player, until a more permanent solution could be found. This formation was introduced in Moscow on the 16th of August.
Roope successfully finished the world tour and took part in the recording of the Trashed, Lost & Strungout single. However, his departure is certain, since Alexi strongly believes that it will take the singularity out of Sinergy and Children of Bodom if he and Roope keep playing together in both bands. Thus far, no guitarist has been chosen as a replacement for Alexander.
The band's symbol is the Grim Reaper.
Current line-up
Former members
Discography
Albums
Singles
- Implosion of Heaven (Demo, 1994)
- Ubiquitous Absence of Remission (Demo, 1995)
- Shining (Demo, 1996)
- Children of Bodom (1997)
- Downfall (1998)
- Hate Me! (2000)
- You're Better Off Dead! (2002)
- Trashed, Lost & Strungout (2004)
External links
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