Alexi passed away

[COB-666]

" Tales from the depths of Lake Bodom pt 12

In the fall of 2001 we traveled to Mexico to play three shows promoting Follow the Reaper. The tour was called Machete Up Your ass and it would include also countries in South America.

Our first trips to Mexico were special, not only cos we could eat tacos and play for the crazy Mexican crowd, but also because we met Edgar and Victor. It is an honor for us to still be your friends after 20 plus years. We love our burros!

We asked Edgar if he remembers something from this trip, he wrote in Spanish, but what we get from it we traveled from city to city in an old school bus. And also at some point in Edgar’s mom’s van. This photo is probably from some hotel. With Ewo, Victor and Edgar.

Is there anyone here who saw this tour?

"2001. Follow the Reaper Mexico tour; I would like to say that I have many great memories, although I do not remember much... I worked as a roadie moving amps and guitars and opening Coronas for the band. We probably went to a bar and dinner; and from the hotel to the venue in Mexico City. We got around in my moms minivan.
When we went to Guadalajara and some other city I cannot remember, we moved around in a school bus. Corona and tequila during rehearsal, during the show, after the show, and during the trips on the school bus. Ewo told me Alexander erased the backstage parties in Guadalajara when he accidentally recorded himself over them while trying to view them. He was very drunk! -Edgar"

 

[COB-666]

" Tales from the depths of lake Bodom pt 13

Let’s go back to that Mexican trip. Like said earlier, one the best things music has given us is friends around the world. Victor and Edgar for example. They traveled with us in Mexico in 2001 and surely remember stuff better than we do. This photo with Victor is from Queretaro, where we could hang outside and do the guitar maintenance in fresh air. So exotic for us!

Does anyone have the shirt Victor is wearing?

But let the witness do the talk.

“Una de las cosas con las que se sorprendió la banda fue el tamaño de las cervezas de un litro ó cómo se les llama en Mexico “Caguamas” no es que no hubieran visto antes una cerveza de un litro pero nunca habían visto una cerveza Corona de un litro.
También siempre preguntaban si había la oportunidad de comer Burger King por qué en ese tiempo no había BK en Finlandia y realmente les gustaba.
Antes de el primer show que fue en Querétaro recuerdo que todos estaban practicando/calentando con sus instrumentos y realmente estaban contentos por que tenían cerveza fría en la mano y lo podían hacer al aire libre ya que había un jardín muy grande afuera de el lugar donde iba a ser el show y algo que se me quedó muy marcado fue que una de las perillas del volumen del bajo de Henka era la cabeza de un Storm Trooper o Darth Vader, no recuerdo muy bien cuál de los dos pero era uno de ellos y también me acuerdo mucho cómo de cada tres palabras que Alexi decía una era vitun, que es como decir maldito/chingue su ó como comúnmente se dice en inglés “fuck” y pues después de unas horas ya andábamos diciendo vitun todo el tiempo.
En esos shows yo trabajé como el representante del promotor local(Mexico).
Victor.”

 

[Aries Poison Girl]

May I ask again what is this group everybody are talking about? The one all the circus happened? His sister post, his ex-band mates post...
Janne "said" Alexi left because he start drinking and they couldn't influenced him, or so. Those are rumors again, I am not sure who is right in here, but since Alexi was alive nobody dared to talk about him in front or behind his back. Now suddenly everybody are allowed to explain his business and became experts.
So is this group in facebook or so?

 

[COB-666]

" Tales from the depths of lake Bodom pt 14

There had been many plans to play in India but sadly they had never worked out, but in 2012 we were approached by a festival in Bangalore. This time it would work. But there would be some troubles. First of all Henkka had pneumonia and was hospitalized two weeks before the trip. He got better but the doctor was not happy about a long flight ahead. Eventually he got the permission to fly but he should keep his heart rate low for the next 4 weeks. “How do I do a Bodom show without my heart rate going crazy?” he recalls thinking then. He just had to start mentally prepare for an “easy show”.

After traveling for 20 hrs we landed in hot Bangalore. Our crew did the line check one concern arose: the festival was outdoors but the stage was not covered. It was not suppose to rain that day. Line check went fine, but around noon the rain came. Well, we had the last slot so maybe we would be fine.
The rain didn’t stop. Band after another canceled their performances. When we arrived to the site our tour manager gave us two options, either we pack our stuff and go back home. Or we figure a way to do this in case the rain would not stop.
It was pretty easy decision; we had finally got our asses to India and not to mention the few thousand soaked metal heads waiting for us.

“The key was to figure out how to play electric instruments without danger of electric shock. The rain showed no signs of stopping. We got into a point where all the backline could be secured from the rain, progress but how to have the guys on stage without getting electric shocks from their instruments. The very last resort was to have a small garden tent for each musician. When we told this to the guys they just laughed, but then we said ́no we are serious ́. They looked at each other and said fuck it” says Viltsu our sound guy

By the time some one had found and assembled 5 garden tents on stage we had already lost almost half of our stage time. But hey, we could finally get on. We went on and played one of the most memorable shows (at least visually ) for the crazy metalheads who had been standing in the rain for hours.

We salute you!

by Lussi "

 

[COB-666]

" Tales from the depths of lake Bodom pt 15

Our second European tour was with Dismember, Agathodaimon, Raise Hell and Night in gales in the fall of 1998. Gorgoroth was supposed to be on the tour. It was a big disappointment for us, Gorgoroth fans too, when we heard they would have to cancel the tour. But still it was an honor to share the stage with one of our favorite bands, the mighty Dismember.

It was such an important thing to realize that those guys were the friendliest and most down to earth. It was also cool to see Sharlee D’Angelo playing bass. Hearing and seeing Dreaming in Red every night was a blast.

Dismember singer Matti Kärki is Swedish-Finnish and he really loved to talk to us in Finnish, to keep his mother tongue at least a little active. This photo here is one of the moments when he made us laugh with his jokes that he always managed to deliver in Finnish. One thing we never forget is when he popped into our bus just before their stage time and said “moi, mä tulin vaan nopeasti tänne kun halusin vielä käydä vaan tupakalla ja viinalla”.

Who digs Dismember, what’s the best song? "

 

[<Arcane>]

It seems that Alexi has risen from the dead.
At least his Insta account is busy sharing ads for new BAM merchandise and liking photos of Daniel.
No shit - which intern has access to the account?!
How can it be that the inheritance of a dead person is used for merchandise and then also likes pictures of other people???

Sany can back it up with a pic.

 

[Conti]

It seems that Alexi has risen from the dead.
At least his Insta account is busy sharing ads for new BAM merchandise and liking photos of Daniel.
No shit - which intern has access to the account?!
How can it be that the inheritance of a dead person is used for merchandise and then also likes pictures of other people???

Sany can back it up with a pic.

Yeah, really strange. The official COB account also kicked into overdrive after his death.

 

[MattK]

Yeah, really strange. The official COB account also kicked into overdrive after his death.

I kind of get the official COB account because the band seems to run it and are using it to share memories with the fans and promote their store. They did buy the rights to it after all. Yeah the alexi one is weirder since he never was a social media guy to begin with

 

[<Arcane>]

The official COBHC Insta account didn't give a damn about its fans until before Alexi's death and hardly ever posted anything.

Now you get spammed with links to people who listen, own, wear or see something from Bodom somewhere.

And since the band doesn't generate any income anymore and nobody can really earn money through COBHC (let alone through any underground bands that don't interest anyone like Moonshot or Jaska's band), they now fall back on the fans.

And on socks. And "I survived Lake Bodom" shirts.

Not to be catty, but the "Tales from Lake Bodom" stories, while nice to read, are also just a rip-off of Kim's memoir - which is quite successful.

 

[MattK]

They did go silent once the band broke up. At the same time what were they gonna post on there? “Hey look at all these old photos of us” while the mastermind is off with his new band.

I always thought they would eventually reconcile and maybe do special festival performances as a reunited lineup down the line.

Probably feels like crashing back down to earth after the career they had and are now relegated to these dead end bands.

I see where you are coming from and you have some valid points. Also I loved that tribute video you made with soon departed. That shit was well done

 

[COB-666]

" Tales from the depths of lake Bodom pt 16

In 2001 we got invited to Mystic Festival in Poland. The lineup was quite “true” and we felt like being a pop band among the true black metal groups. Our style had changed from Something Wild quite a lot already by then, and at the party we remember clearly when some ‘true’ metalhead came to tell Alexi, in quite a hostile manner, how “fucking ‘fun’ we had become” with our last release. Alexi didn’t give a shit, of course.

But anyway, let’s go back to the show day. When we got to the backstage before the show, there was these small black ‘angel wings’ that you could strap around your chest so that you would have the wings in your back (was it a gift or someone just forgot them, can’t remember…)
Anyway, Janne tried them on and we had a good laugh. And then we kept warming up. Then the promoter showed up to tell us that it’s our time and he would walk us to the stage, we would have to walk quite a long way and somehow thru the crowd partially. Halfway someone of us realized that Janne still had those black angel wings on his back. He ditched them quickly and we climbed on stage to do our thing. Wingless.

We can just guess if Janne hadn’t noticed that he was still sporting those black angel wings while getting on stage, would that ‘true metal head’ have taken us more seriously.

Has anyone seen @thetruemayhem or @behemothofficial or any other bands in this lineup from 20 years back? "

 

[Juggler]

I think whatever the COB-Guys do at the moment is wrong. If they kept silent, it would have been wrong. Now they are sharing memories, it's also wrong.
They sell merch, it's wrong, but if they won't sell merch, it would be also wrong because all these fake scum-shops would invade even more.
COB had its last gig in December 2019, shortly after that, Covid fucked everything up. Apart from the fact you don't want to discuss this stuff so shortly after the break-up, there even was no real possibility to meet. Now, they never have the chance to fix things. After this long time they spend together this must be a horrifying feeling. Jaska posted this one pic from spring 1991. These are fucking 30 years. It must hurt like hell.
And you can read that between the lines, that a lot of people accusing them via PN/DM/e-mail/whatever to be responsible for Alexi's death. But how they could have been reacted otherwise when Alexi was drunk and pissed and stubborn and won't listening?
I really don't have a clue how to force someone to accept help when he thinks he could better help himself alone.

 

[Works0fheart]

^one of the few voices of reason around here apparently, because you're exactly right. Careful what you say though, our resident delusionist might pop in and light you up in broken grammar.

 

[COB-666]

" Tales from the depths of lake Bodom pt 17

Perhaps inspired by In Flames’ “Reroute…” album cover, Henkka had thrown the idea of a white album art around ‘Are you
dead yet’ and ‘Blooddrunk’ already, but the idea didn’t get much support. After having three albums, back to back, with very dark covers, we started thinking that Halo Of Blood could actually be white. We decided to go back to Sami Saramäki.

Very quickly we decided that it would be a winter landscape, at the lake of course. Sami started drafting. First came the drawings, and then the concept of winter lake landscape. Sami wanted to have bodies in the ice, and he showed us how it would be done with the simple 3D model.

“I remember showing the guys some options for the background, would it be ‘dystopia’ or ‘prog’? Well actually the latter is what the guys called the version with the icy arches, maybe referring to some prog metal album art, who knows… Anyway, we didn’t choose either of those and that was the right thing to do, I must say.” Sami remembers vividly. “I also had a cape made, by my wife, for the photo. It’s not the most stylish as it is, but after tweaking the image it became perfect!”

Once we had locked the composition, then it wasn’t easy to figure out the texts. Which color and where? After a few tries we ended up with the traditional “logo up and wide”. The color would be red. Halo of Blood was ready.

What are your favorite white albums? "

" Tales from the depths of lake Bodom pt 18

In the late nineties when shows and tours really picked up for CoB Janne got the idea of experimenting with a keytar on stage. Keytar for short is a lightweight portable keyboard.

“I wanted to get closer to the crowds and move on stage like the three dudes with stringed instruments. It was super fun but presented some technical challenges mainly due to the fact that at the time wireless midi did not really exist yet and I had a cord coming from the keytar to the synth rack. Of course choosing when and where you pick it up is tricky as it has to be during parts that can be played with right hand only. Also bending which is an important part of my playing style is fairly different on the keytar.” says Janne.

So guys, are you happy he didn’t use it later on? Or would you have wanted to see him play that thing always? "

 

[CharIie]

It was wise not to keep using the Keytar if he wasn't feeling like he could play at his best with it. But if he had managed, it would have been super cool, mostly for the better interaction with the crowd (Janne being always discrete at the back of the stage).

 

[COB-666]

Tales from the depths of lake Bodom pt 19

4th of April 2001 we played unfortunately the only time in Seoul, Republic of Korea. At the time we were touring for Follow The Reaper album and this Seoul show was part of our Asian tour. We headed to Japan right after visiting the special city.

Our hosts were superb! We went to great restaurants, to see the city (this photo) and eventually played a real good show. After the show we hit the Hard Rock Cafe to get drinks and food. Things got out of hand and an injury happened on the dance floor. Alexi talked about that years later in Metal Hammer UK:

“I’ve done a lot of stupid shit. I hurt myself pretty bad when our ex-guitar player and me were in the Hard Rock Cafe. We were totally fucking wasted after slamming loads of Long Island Iced Tea. We went to the dance floor, but I fell down and that bastard fell on me, so I broke two ribs.”

Getting into South Korea was somewhat difficult with permits etc. and apparently everything got even more strict afterwards, hence we never really got a chance to go back, which is very unfortunate.

Luckily, a local tv channel filmed the show.

Have you guys seen the show? What did you think?

#republicofkorea #southkorea #seoul

Tales from the depths of lake Bodom pt 20

We started touring in North America as late as 2003. The first tours in the states were very exotic for us. Some cities were easier but some were really difficult in terms of getting the crowd on our side. Texas was one of the difficult states for us. It was always a big challenge to play in front of a tough Texan crowd especially when opening for bigger bands.

One thing we also learned was the importance of Halloween for the American people. The first time (at least what we remember) Halloween fell on a show day was in Lubbock, Texas. Opening for Black Label Society in 2010. Show in Texas, in a city we never played before, opening for the mighty BLS @blacklabelsocietyofficial !!!

Well. Against all odds we decided to dress up anyway. Alexi had a black cape with an upside down cross hanging in front, Janne was a monk, Henkka had makeup, a tight dress and high heels (heels, only for the first seconds though), Jaska was Spider-Man. And Roope
was Jesus.

The show was great. We started to feel that Texas is good for us after all.

Years went by, but ever since the Lubbock show Texas felt better and better for us. At some point we realized that Texas shows were actually among the best shows on the whole continent.

Funnily our last Halloween date in the states happened to be in the Lone Star State. A good friend of ours suggested that maybe this time we should be a Mariachi group. That’s what we did. 31st October 2017, Dallas, Texas @gasmonkeygarage
Photos by @bobby_kingstar

If you guys have any photos from either show, please share by tagging us, would love to see some!!

Some footage from the Lubbock show can be seen here.



#texas#halloween#mariachi

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

[FatBastard]

Well, I'll bet none of you had a very distressing dream last night, about trying to find a picture of an eggplant that Alexi drew on the base of the castle's main tower's wall in his youth with two of his girl friends one sleepless night... But I did... and what now...

 

[COB-666]

" Tales from the depths of lake Bodom pt 21

When we toured North America for the first time we played in Philadelphia. The Troc was an awesome venue to play, and so much good food and history just around the corner. Three years after the first visit we played the Trocadero again and this time we met Chris and thru him bunch of other good people we still call good friends. We asked Chris how he remembers this first encounter:

”You guys did a signing at Reprise records on south street. I went to get you all to sign my “death rocker” board. I also gave a fallen Trooper shirt (with the reaper) to Alexi. I didn’t mention who I was or anything, as I’m just a fan who appreciates what you do. Then we went to the Trocadero to see the show. Alexi came out wearing the shirt which was so cool!!!! Bam Margera was there and invited me to meet my favorite band (you).”

Bam indeed escorted Chris and his wife Red backstage after the show to hang out. This was to be the first of so many laughter filled future hangs with Chris, Red, PB and the rest of the amazing Philly crew.

One of them happened actually in Long Beach CA.

“Kenny G came on Chris’s iPod on shuffle and we literally listen to him on the way to see Bodom. After having a few beers before the show (and Kenny G fresh in our minds) Chris looks to me and says, “Do yourself a favor and check out Kenny G down the hall.” I looked and said something like, “Shit dude! That looks just like him!” And Henkka said “Oh yeah, that’s him. His kids are fans and we met him earlier” PB recalls.

@chriscobracole@christine.m.f@superpeebs@ianmberry@anneewillcox@kennyg@kmancobhc@longbeacharena@fallen.footwear@bam__margera@themattlarsen#philadelphia "

 

[COB-666]

" Nightwish’s Tuomas Holopainen remembers his friend Alexi Laiho: ‘I really miss him’

Nightwish’s Tuomas Holopainen recalls his friendship with late Children Of Bodom leader Alexi Laiho in the new issue of Metal Hammer


Nightwish’s Tuomas Holopainen has spoken to Metal Hammer about his friendship with late Children Of Bodom / Bodom After Midnight frontman and guitarist Alexi Laiho, and admits, “I really miss him.”

In the latest issue of Metal Hammer, Nightwish mainman Holopainen reminiscences about his and Laiho's love of music and "child-like things", including Donald Duck and board games.

Questioned as to whether he knew the guitarist well, Holopainen tells Hammer’s Dave Everley, “Yeah, we were really close about 10 of 15 years ago. We hung out a lot. I went to his place, he came to my place in Kitee.

“We shared a love of music, and also Donald Duck and board games – innocent, child-like things.”

Explaining how the news of Laiho's death hit him hard, he continues, “We knew he was going through some troubles with his physical health, but when I got the phone call, I remember falling on my knees – like, 'no way'.

“It punched me big time. I really miss him. He was a wonderful personality. There was an innocence in him, a naivety when it came to music that I really respected.”

Alexi Laiho passed unexpectedly on December 29, 2020 at his home in Helsinki at the age of 41 of “Alcohol-induced degeneration of the liver and pancreas connective tissue.”

Earlier this year, the guitarist’s last ever recordings, as Bodom After Midnight, were released. The EP, titled Paint The Sky With Blood, was described by Metal Hammer as “instantly recognisable as the great man’s work, from the guitar work’s effortless virtuosity to the incisive gleam of every melodic hook.” "

https://www.loudersound.com/news/ni...bers-his-friend-alexi-laiho-i-really-miss-him

 

[COB-666]

Tales from the depths of lake Bodom pt 22

After we had met @chriscobracole , our publicist @themattlarsen made sure we would be able to hang with Chris as often as we would be around.

After recording Relentless Reckless with the awesome Matt Hyde @northvineinc and Chris Rakestraw @yeoldraker we had to choose the single to shoot video for. We were balancing between Shovel Knockout and Was It Worth It? The first one being a song that has strong traditional Bodom melodies, fast complicated verse and a simple powerful chorus. Was It Worth It? on the other hand is far from the traditional Bodom sound, very simple structure and slow in tempo.

We ended up choosing the latter. Our manager at the time @pauljosephconroy had the idea to have pro skaters do crazy stuff in the video. It was 2010 and were touring USA at the time and one of the off days we drove to @woodwardcamp in Pennsylvania to meet up with @tomasta@garretthill Hill, Chris Cole and @jamiethomas Thomas. The director @reelrage Resteghini welcomed us to the site with hugs and told that most of the skater parts had been shot the day before and today would be the band ‘s day. We would start working right away, and luckily we could witness some crazy skateboarding while shooting our parts.

Who is the all time best skater in your opinion? Tag him/her in comments!

Copy the link to the video here

Tales from the depth of lake Bodom pt 23

After our sixth album “Blooddrunk” we had some pressure from management and label to try an American producer for our seventh album. It was organised so that on a US tour supporting Blooddrunk we had met with a bunch of amazing legendary producers and chose Matt Hyde to team up with on our next album. In 2010 Matt then came to Finland to hang with us and inspect our demo recording habits and also drove up to Petrax Studio in Hollola with Janne to inspect the studio. When it came time to start the session Matt arrived with his recording assistant engineer Chris Rakestraw. As far as we know Chris had never ventured outside his home country of the United States of America previous to this session and we were delighted to have him over in Hollolan Kirkonkylä, a beautiful little situation outside of the town of Hollola with a population of approximately 560. We were all amazed how well Chris and Matt adapted to the rural Finnish countryside studio. This has to be due to the hospitality of Tiina and Petri over at Petrax. They are absolutely world class hosts and soon Matt was fully embracing the Finnish culture warming up the wood burning sauna twice a day once in the morning and then after the sessions for the day had ended.

We were all curious to how different working with the Americans would be but in reality apart from a few technical details like drum microphone choices working and recording was not all that different. The session was great fun and when Petri took us to their cabin by a lake nearby and took off and landed an RC plane on the lake Chris named him “Petri, man of the year”.

We asked Matt Hyde what he remembers from this session: “This was one of my all time favorite records to make. Recording with Alexi and Bodom at Petrax was incredible and unforgettable.”

What’s the best track of this record?

Tales from the depths of lake Bodom pt 24.

We have had the privilege to play with big bands, like our childhood heroes Slayer, Halford, Megadeth, Metallica just to name a few. We have also played on the main stage in one of the biggest festivals there is, Wacken Open Air. The main area where you see the main stages fit approximately 80 000 listeners. Correct us if we are wrong.

But when we have been asked what is the biggest crowd we ever played for, the answer is somewhat surprising.

In summer of 2005 we got an interesting offer, to play a support show for a German punk band’s farewell show. We had no idea who they were but our management convinced us to do it anyway.

When we got to the site, we were blown away. They had literally built a festival somewhere between Leipzig and Cottbus.
That weekend this Lausitzring became temporarily one of the 50 most populated cities in Germany.

One stage. They were expecting 120 000 people. And then the next day the same amount of people. And both days sold out. It was the largest open-air show by a German band in history. Supporting bands included us, Motörhead, Machine Head, JBO, In Extremo, Psychopunch, Pro-Pain and the Onkelz cover bands Enkelz and Kneipenterroristen.

When we got on stage, the place was not yet packed. But tens of thousands had already come to enjoy the sun and the beer. While we played more and more people got to the site. Luckily there was maybe thousand (practically just the first row) Bodom fans to make the job little easier for us. Thank you!

Don’t know how many Onkelz fans got into Bodom that night but anyone of you guys saw that show?