Children of Bodom
Children of Bodom is a Finnish melodic death metal band from Espoo, Uusimaa. 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, keyboardist Janne Wirman and guitarist Daniel Freyberg. The band released ten studio albums, three live albums, two EPs, two compilation albums and one DVD.
The band's third studio album, Follow the Reaper, was their first album to receive a gold certification in Finland, and subsequent studio albums acquired the same status. Their next four albums each debuted at number one on the Finnish album charts, and have also seen chart positions on the United States Billboard 200. They are one of Finland's best selling artists of all time with more than 250,000 records sold there alone.
In 2019, Children of Bodom held their last concert in Helsinki named A Chapter Called Children of Bodom, before disbanding the band. Laiho and Freyberg carried on as Bodom After Midnight in 2020. Laiho, who was one of the founding members of Children of Bodom as well as the main songwriter, died in December of that year.
In October 2025, the surviving members of Children of Bodom announced that the band will reunite to perform two tribute shows for Laiho in February 2026, with Samy Elbanna filling in for him on vocals and guitar.
In 2016, the staff of Loudwire named them the 42nd-best metal band of all time.
History
Formation and early years (1993–1996)
Children of Bodom was formed in 1993 by guitarist Alexi "Wildchild" Laiho and drummer Jaska Raatikainen under the name of Inearthed. They had known each other since early childhood and had shared an interest in heavy metal, especially death metal groups, such as Dissection, Entombed, Cannibal Corpse, Autopsy, and Obituary and classic metal groups such as Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Black Sabbath, Metallica, Dio, and Ozzy Osbourne. Bassist Samuli Miettinen completed the initial line-up of the band. Inearthed recorded its first demo, Implosion of Heaven, during August of the same year.Miettinen was the main composer of the band's lyrics for the two years that he took part in Inearthed, but his family moved to the United States in 1995, making it impossible for him to remain in the band. His last contributions to Inearthed were the lyrics of the songs from their second demo, Ubiquitous Absence of Remission which was the first time they worked with producer Anssi Kippo at Astia-studios. In this demo, keyboards were incorporated into the band's songs for the first time. In order to achieve this, both Laiho and Raatikainen played the keyboards separately and subsequently mixed the recorded track with the other instruments. Laiho, who had previously only composed the melodies of the songs, assumed the role of the band's lyricist.
At the time, Raatikainen played French horn in a local big band, and during a rehearsal, he met Alexander Kuoppala, a trumpet player and also a proficient guitarist. Shortly after the recording of their second demo, Kuoppala was invited to join Inearthed as a rhythm guitarist.
In early 1996, Henkka "Blacksmith" Seppälä, whom Laiho and Raatikainen had previously known from school, replaced Miettinen on bass as well as contributing backing vocals. The band also recruited Jani Pirisjoki to play keyboards.
With this new line-up, Inearthed proceeded to record their third demo, titled Shining. This demo did not impress record labels any more than the previous ones had, and none took interest in the band. Despite their efforts, their music got little exposure and managed only to play at local events. As a last resort, the band decided to record an independent, self-funded album.
Laiho wanted to make use of the keyboards more effectively, but Pirisjoki was not attending rehearsals. Thus, he was fired and replaced by a friend of Raatikainen's, a jazz pianist named Janne "Warman" Wirman.
In order to sign with Spinefarm Records, the band was required to create a new name due to the contract they signed with Shiver records under the name Inearthed. The band found the answer in their local phone book when they stumbled upon Lake Bodom. The band found that the lake had an interesting story behind it due to the Lake Bodom murders. A long list of possible names involving the word Bodom was then made, and they settled on Children of Bodom.
''Something Wild'' and ''Hatebreeder'' (1996–2000)
Something Wild was produced, recorded and mixed by Anssi Kippo and Children of Bodom at Astia-studios. In an attempt to promote their band, they opened a show for Dimmu Borgir in 1997. Something Wild was released in late 1997 in Finland and in 1998 worldwide. In early 1998, for promotional purposes, the band recorded a music video of the song "Deadnight Warrior". The video was directed by Mika Lindberg and had a slim budget of €1000. It made use of simple scenery, which consisted essentially of an outdoors location after a snowstorm. The band played for a couple of hours at night, with an average temperature of minus fifteen degrees Celsius.Although Laiho was very critical of all of the music he had written, he noted that he dislikes Something Wild the most of all of his albums. When recording this album, Laiho had tried to mimic the style of one of his idols, Yngwie Malmsteen, which is why Something Wild is considered one of the most technical albums Children of Bodom have produced. Despite this, he considered it to be their "most important" record, as it "put them on the map."
Children of Bodom's first European tour began in February 1998. They played with bands such as Hypocrisy, The Kovenant and Agathodaimon, but Wirman was replaced by pianist Erna Siikavirta for the duration of the tour.
Months later, the band recorded two new songs again at Astia-studios with producer Anssi Kippo, titled "Towards Dead End" and "Children of Bodom". In late August, the band played the song "Forevermore" live for the first time during a show in Russia. This song was later renamed "Downfall".
Their second European tour occurred in September of that same year, but once more Wirman was not able to perform with them. Laiho's then-girlfriend Kimberly Goss assumed the keyboards this time. By the end of the tour, Kimberly invited Laiho to join Sinergy, which at the time was still in its early stages.
The second album, Hatebreeder, was recorded between the end of 1998 and the beginning of 1999 by Anssi Kippo at Astia-studios. It was originally titled Towards Dead End, but while in studio the members of the band opted for the current title. To create anticipation in Finland, the '"Downfall" single was released two weeks prior to the album's release. It was accompanied by a new music video, once more directed by Mika Lindberg. Hatebreeder ultimately topped the charts in many European countries. In July 1999, the success of the "Downfall" single and Hatebreeder allowed Children of Bodom to schedule three concerts in Japan with Sinergy and In Flames. During two of these concerts, the live album Tokyo Warhearts was recorded. In it the band managed to seamlessly reproduce and at times improve on their songs. At their request, no overdubs were used on the recording of the concert.
Rise to popularity: ''Follow the Reaper'' and ''Hate Crew Deathroll'' (2000–2004)
For their next release, Children of Bodom decided to make use of Peter Tägtgren's Abyss studio in Sweden instead of the Finnish Astia-studio from Anssi Kippo where they had recorded all of their previous releases including the demos from Inearthed. The band wrote eight songs for the album. While in the studio, they decided to include an extra track that was hastily composed and featured lyrics improvised by Laiho; that track would eventually receive the name of "Kissing the Shadows". The band gave the album the name of Follow the Reaper and recording sessions took place between August and September 2000; the album saw a worldwide release in late 2000. A music video for "Everytime I Die" was recorded by the Finnish director Tuukka Temonen shortly after.In February 2002, Children of Bodom began writing songs for their upcoming album, titled Hate Crew Deathroll. They returned to Astia-studio to work with producer Anssi Kippo again. The session ensued during the months of August and September, and the album was released January 2003 in Finland. It remained on the top of the Finnish charts for a total of three weeks and subsequently became the band's first gold album. Eventually, all of the band's albums reached this status and Follow the Reaper reached platinum.
On 3 January 2003, the Finnish Metal Music Awards were held at Tavastia Club in Helsinki. Voting was open to all the metal fans and was presented through the various media outlets that were working with the event's organizers. Children of Bodom was awarded Finnish Band of the Year.
Children of Bodom's first world tour began in 2003 and lasted until late 2004. The tour had many sold-out concerts and marked the consolidation of the band in North America, but was also accompanied by an unexpected announcement: Kuoppala decided to quit Children of Bodom for personal reasons right in the middle of the tour without giving previous warning. In an interview, when Laiho was asked why Kuoppala left the band, he stated that "Well, I try to be careful about what I say about him because there is no bad blood between us. He told me that he just got sick of touring and the whole band/rock 'n roll lifestyle living in hotels and tour buses and stuff. For me it was really weird because he was always the one who was SO into it! He was a die hard rock 'n roller and suddenly he made a quick 180 turn in his whole life. This whole situation involves a new girlfriend." Griffin's guitarist Kai Nergaard was invited by Laiho to replace Kuoppala, but did not accept the offer. Thus, Alexi's bandmate from Sinergy, Roope Latvala assumed the guitars as a session player, until a more permanent solution could be found. This formation was introduced in Moscow on 16 August.