In the last eight years or so, Children Of Bodom has gone from being "this amazing band from Finland" to a household name in the metal community.
The band formed in 1993 in the city of Espoo, Finland. They took their name from one of the biggest murder mysteries in the history of their hometown and Finnish crime: the murders at Lake Bodom. After starting out as a thrash-metal combo, the founding members Alexi Laiho (guitars and vocals), Jaska Raatikainen (drums), Henkka Seppälä (bass) and Alexander Kuoppala (guitars) soon found elements of classic heavy metal creeping into their music. After taking in keyboardist Janne Wirman to complete their line-up, they honed their combination of old school black metal, classic heavy, and death metal vocals into the sharpest instrument of its kind and headed out to a studio to record a demo.
After Spinefarm Records received the demo in 1996, it didn’t take long for the company to figure out what they had in their hands and soon signed the band.
The self-titled platinum-selling debut single "Children Of Bodom" went straight to number 1 on the Finnish charts. The debut full-length album "Something Wild" was released in Finland in 1997. They supported Dimmu Borgir at the band's Helsinki show in November and were hailed as the new kings of Finnish underground metal.
Soon CoB was flying all over Europe and writing new material that would become the "Hatebreeder" album, released in 1999. On "Hatebreeder" their music had found its true shape: it was faster, heavier and more versatile than "Something Wild". The single "Downfall" went gold and ruled the Finnish charts. During the summer, CoB toured Finland and Europe. In 2000 the single "Hate Me!" went #1 at the Finnish charts and became Platinum in Finland. While the single was topping the charts, CoB finished their studio sessions at Peter Tägtgren's Abyss Studio, and the third album "Follow the Reaper" saw the light of day in October 2000. The record was a glorious mixture of their debut album's heavy riffing raw sound, combined with the monstrous technical metal acrobatics of "Hatebreeder." The most noticeable thing, however, was how much the band had improved as a unit, bringing the personal levels of musicianship to a new high.
On 2003’s "Hate Crew Deathroll," Alexi spits out his lyrics with vitriolic hate, the guitars shred everything in their wake with razor sharp precision; the rhythm section pounds away like the world is about to end with the keyboards as the coup de grace. In the summer of 2003, Alexander left the band and was replaced by Roope Latvala, whose stellar playing had already graced countless Finnish metal records. In 2004 the band tested their new line-up on a four-track EP and a separate DVD-EP "Trashed, Lost & Strungout" that gave a little taste of the future alongside two great cover songs. The EP was an introduction to a new found drive, a rougher edge, still sounding definitely and unmistakably very CoB. After the release, the band barricaded themselves into studio Hästholmen, Helsinki, to record their next LP “Are You Dead Yet?” together with producer / mixer / engineer guru Mikko Karmila.
Children of Bodom have come a long way since their humble beginnings, and today stand tall in the all time extreme metal hall of fame, commanding the respect and awe of both fans and colleagues alike. They have been hugely influential, but still, eight years down the road east and west alike, remain the leaders of the genre. "Are You Dead Yet?" is all the proof you need.
(read less)In the last eight years or so, Children Of Bodom has gone from being "this amazing band from Finland" to a household name in the metal community.
The band formed in 1993 in the city of Espoo, Finland. They took their name from one of the biggest murder mysteries in the history of their hometown and Finnish crime: the murders at Lake Bodom. After starting out as a thrash-metal combo, the founding members Alexi Laiho (guitars and vocals), Jaska Raatikainen (drums), Henkka Seppälä (bass) and...
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