It's done at last. Sorry for the delays but some things got in the way (and you'll soon discover that there's a hell lot of text, with a way too long background information part in the beginning).
If you find any spelling/gramatical errors or if something just sounds odd in general, tell me and I'll try to correct it. When it's written children of Bodom (without capital C) there's nothing wrong though, because the direct translation should have been the Bodomchildren (Bodombarnen) but I thought that sounded stupid (it did in Swedish too...) so I changed it.
tjurskit = bullshit (you'll understand why I didn't translate it in the text when you read it)
And one last thing. Does anyone have any better translation for "lämna någon i sticket" than "leave someone in the lurch"?
Sudden death at Bodom
Children of Bodom returns to the scene of the crime
In 1960 four Finnish youths went camping at the lake of Bodom, one of the supposed thousand lakes in Finland. The camping trip however got a horrible ending. A madman with a knife brutally stabbed three of the youths to death. The fourth, a young man, has suppressed the event completely and doesnt remember anything. The man who stabbed the youths has never been found. The mystery with the children of Bodom is still unsolved. Thats how the preamble to my last article about Children of Bodom. But now the mystery is no longer unsolved. Or is it? SRM has visited the scene of the crime.
One of the most legendary crimes ever in Finnish criminal history seems to get its solution 45 years after the crime took place. In Sweden that never would have happened because murders get statue-barred after 25 years. But a law like that doesnt exist in Finland and you can get prosecuted for a murder no matter how long time has passed since the actual deed. Perhaps that is whats happening right know in our eastern neighbouring country. When you read this sentence should have been pronounced in the case against the 63 years old Nils Gustafsson. Nils was the only survivor of the four youths and has in years been prosecuted for the murders of his friends the 4th of June in 1960. The retired bus driver sticks to his original story that he doesnt remember anything of the events that night but still claims that hes innocent. The prosecutor Tom Ifström has in court in Espoo referred to the result of new DNA-technology which he thinks binds Gustafsson to the crime, mainly that Gustafssons blood has been found on the three murdered: Seppo Boisman, Irmeli Björklund and Tuulikki Mäka.
According to the prosecutors story the both young men had been drinking pretty heavily whereupon Seppo and his girlfriend Tuulikki have withdrawn for more intimate intercourse. Something like that however didnt Irmeli; who Nils was about to start off a relation ship with; wanna enter into. The rejected and heavily intoxicated youth should then have tried to get desired activity by force, whereupon Seppo and Yuulikki stepped between
yeah, you can probably figure out the rest.
But there is some troublesome factors. Gustafsson claims that it wasnt so strange that he had his friends blood on himself after the prevailing jumble. Besides, he has during hypnosis left a detailed description of a, for him, unknown man who would have been the murderer and also inflicted the pretty serve injuries Nils got. Another ingredient in this peculiar story, Professor Jorma Palo contributes with. Hes supposed to one day after the murders have taken care of a confused and injured man who is said to be the German agent Hans Assman and according to Palos theory is the real murderer. The cause of the murder still being unsolved should then be that Assman was protected by the Finnish security police.
The case is solved?
But the guys in Children of Bodom dont give much for this later theory when I go with them to the lake of Bodom to visit the scene of the crime.
Its a nice late summer day and when we arrive the lake contains both swimmers, boats and jumping fishes. The representative of the record company has got a map over the scene of the murder, which of course is available for buying. When weve found our way to the exact place where three Swedish-speaking Finnish youths lost their lives a little more than 45 years ago it doesnt feel quite as macabre and unpleasant as I had thought it would be. Maybe its because such a long time has passed or maybe even more likely because of the Finnish summer idyll and the view over the beautiful lake that makes the place an inconceivable resident for such a gory incident. Pictures should be taken and it surfaces that its only the second time the band has taken pictures out here, even if the lake itself has appeared on several of their CD covers. As the tent is set up several murder tourists stroll about on the place and ask curious questions to the motley company which seems to be camping on stained ground. The artists themselves are pretty amused by the situation, possibly with exception for the singer and guitarist Alexi Laiho who after arriving late mostly walks around by himself smoking constantly.
When the pictures have been taken we get into the cars and drive back to Helsinki for some food, more beer and an interview with the band though the latter now reduced to four because the drummer Jaska Raatikainen has to leave. The conversation of course comes to circulate around the latest revelations in the murder case and Alexi admits that he voraciously follows whats going on, not least with thought on that the well guarded trial inevitably gives a considerable amount of publicity to the lake Bodom and then also indirectly to his band.
Ive read as much as Ive come across about it. Theres a lot of shit I didnt know and obviously no one else did either. But I dont think hes gonna get convicted.
I dont think its our thing to say if hes guilty or not, says the guitarist Roope Latvala but adds that Gustafssons going to go free.
The keyboard playing Janne Wirman agrees and reckons that there isnt enough with evidence.
But he has to be guilty.
Publicity for free
When I interviewed Alexi in 2003 he told me that they had chosen the band name because of the bands morbid sense of humour. Of course he thinks the name is even funnier now.
And now its Bodom everywhere. Of course they dont mention the band, but we still get free publicity every day. On the internet there are people who write that we should change name now when theyve caught the murderer. Why? 45 years after the murder they catch the guy and he turns out be the fourth member of the company. As if that isnt mysterious enough
During our whole carrier Ive waited for a negative reaction on our band name, says the bassist Henka T. Blacksmith (Or Henkka Seppälä, which is his real name). But there hasnt been one. Now when the case is up again itll probably come. But its good publicity for us.
When the group chose their band name they had certainly never thought that the case would actually come to a solution but Janne tells me that one of their fans actually already solved the case several years before the Finnish police did.
There was a new fan who came to our website and found his way to the discussion forum. He wondered what the meaning behind Bodom was. Someone told him the story and he wrote that it was an obvious case. That one of the guys got laid and the other guy didnt and got mad
I think he wrote that the others had a threesome or something, Alexi cuts in.
Maybe, but what he wrote was more or less exactly what happened. He got furious because he didnt succeed to nail the chick.
We thought it was fun when he wrote it for a couple of years ago, Alexi continues. But we didnt believe in it. Now when it has turned out to be true its actually even funnier.
You have one Bodom-song on every album. Is the one on the next album going to be about whats now revealed?
Probably, Janne says quickly.
Maybe, considers Alexi. You never know.
No, says Janne. We have to be careful with talking shit about this guy because he has fucking good lawyers.
Were not talking shit about the guy, objects Alexi. But well see. Probably theres gonna be something about whats happened in some way, but how do you write lyrics about a fucking trial? I dont know. Well see.
Alexander quits
Since I met Children of Bodom the last time the band has for the first time lost a member. In 2003 the astounding news came that the guitarist Alexander Kuoppala hade made the decision to quit the band. Almost as astounding was that the group short after announced that they had a new guitarist, the somewhat legendary Roope Latvala. But how does this go together with following quote from my last interview with Alexi: No one else can play in this band. Not because we are the best musicians in the world, but because it has to be we five. Weve got the chemistry.?
I still stand up for the idea behind what I said then, Alexi explains. But obviously it doesnt need to be exactly those five people we were then, haha! I mean, it was a difficult situation.
It wasnt just Alexis idea, says Janne to his defence. All five felt that way, that it would always be we five. You can never foresee that someones about to do a 180°-turn and become a totally different person.
Thats what happened, Alexi confirms. Someone turned out to be a person we didnt want in the band anyway. But now he quitted. We just thought that OK, now hes met this chick. Now hes gonna be totally rapt by her in like two months before he gets tired of the bitch and becomes the guy he used to be.
Alexi chuckles a little at how wrong they were.
Instead he gets children and quits the band
So when he turned out to be another person then you thought
No, interrupts Janne, thats not how it was. We knew him! But he changed. He changed his lifestyle and everything that was him.
Absolutely, agrees Alexi. It was like some other fucking guy had jumped into his body and taken over. Im serious!
Thats how it was, tells Janne. The band always came first. That was his first priority. And then suddenly he didnt give a shit about the band.
He used to be the most exaggerated rock n roll-dude you can imagine, Alexi continues. The band and the friends was everything for him. He also used to be my best friend. And suddenly neither the band nor the friends means a shit to him. And I know that Ive always said that if someone quits well bury the group. But that would be like the dumbest thing you could do. Weve worked our asses of in many, many years for this and then should we throw that away because of one person? No way.
Former friends
Hard words rain over the former friend and member of a band where the members have had strong bonds to each other. But for Alexi it was also a hard blow when the treachery came from where he least excepted it.
I was totally wrecked. Seriously!
Janne wasnt quite as surprised, and had already got a feeling where things were heading. But he still got upset when Alexander left them before a number of concerts.
Well, we couldnt really cancel. Or maybe we could, but that would have sucked ass.
Henkka had also seen how the band mate had begun changing from being totally devoted to the band and loving touring like the others.
On the last tour he didnt seem happy anymore and was on the phone talking with his girlfriend all the time. To the last show, at the Tuska festival, he didnt even come with us in the bus but instead took the car with his girlfriend. But I dont know if he left us in the lurch. On the level we are, theres really no good point of time to quit. I think he had planned it that way, because at least we had a little more than a month till the next concert.
He left us in the lurch, thinks Alexi though. I asked him, I said that we only had a few booked concerts left. We had Moscow and sold out concerts in Japan. Do them with us and then quit. But he said no, he would play the Tuska festival with us and then go. And that was it. My best friend since many years!
Thats how it really was, confirms Janne. If you asked Alexander where he was he most of the time answered in Alexis car, because they were always together and were out driving.
And how is your relationship now?
There is no relationship, says Alexi with audible bitterness in his voice. We have no contact at all. I dont know him anymore, I dont even know who he is. The guy who was my friend and played guitar in the band
hes gone. Sure, if I run into him in the street its Hey, whats up?. Im not mad at him anymore. But I was. You dont treat a friend like that. OK, he couldnt stay in the band because he wanted to live another kind of life. I can buy that. But why did he ditch all his friends? Thats not nice and thats why I got angry.
Roope joins
However, Alexander was now just a memory. Which meant taking a place on stage for Roope Latvala. More than ten years older than the other members he already has a lot rock n roll on his conscience. During the later half of the eighties he was a founding member of Stone, one of few Finnish bands who has been heard outside Finland before later years explosion. He also spent six years in fairly well known Waltari and is still playing guitar in Sinergy (in which degree that band is still existing) together with Alexi. Like the other children of Bodom hes from the small town Espoo outside Helsinki (where thus also the lake Bodom is situated), but as the difference in age indicates thats not how he got to know them.
When Alexander left the band during ongoing world tour, although they had somewhat of a break, they were supposed to be on stage in Moscow only a month later. Which is a very short time for finding a new guitarist who also can play with as much technical skills as the bands music demands and be able to learn 20 songs. Not a job for some bedroom guitarist, with other words. After a failed attempt to recruit Griffin-guitarist Kai Nergaarden it was in the end Roope who went on stage with the band in Moscow the 16th of august in 2003.
It was scary, Roope remembers. Almost a panic reaction. One sold out concert in Moscow in front of 2000 people and I had had short time to learn the songs. I practiced until the last minute. But I made it.
He saved our asses, says Alexi. He jumped in and played the booked concerts we had and then it just went on. Suddenly we realized that he had played with us in over a year. Hes a great guitarist, a good guy and he looks good on stage.
Step by step
Roope himself remembers how it happened. He just kept playing with the band without anyone asking him if he was about to continue.
The single thing was once in the tour bus. We were sitting, drinking and talking as usual and someone said that if you want to stay youre welcome. Then they poured up more booze and that was the end of the discussion. Weve never talked about it again, ha ha!
But how was it to get into such a tight fellowship that it is in this group?
I took it step by step, answers the guitarist. You arent just one in the band all suddenly. I got to feel my way, how things worked, see if we were going to be friends. But their music and my guitar technique, things I played before, fit well together. So in that way it was pretty easy.
When you recruit someone like Roope in the band you of course also get a lot of experience, which probably could be favourable. And it has also been.
He has a completely different angle of incidence than we, explains Alexi. When we go on and do stuff like we use to he can suggest that we do it in another way. And then it turns out that that works better.
Something that also works better, according to Alexi, is the musicality itself. Roope is one of the best guitarists ever, says the front man, and therefore he doesnt need to worry when he writes new music.
I can come up with the craziest riffs ever and know that the other guy can handle it.
Was that something you worried about with Alexander?
I didnt worry, but I knew his limitations.
Not dead yet
But it isnt the ex-guitarist the new albums title is about, even if you easily could think that when you get to know that the album name is Are You Dead Yet?. The title is a question that Alexi as a matter of fact asked himself after some heavy partying. That sounds like true Finnish partying
We had toured for Hate Crew Deathroll in almost two years. The last part we did was six weeks in the USA. We were so exhausted when we came home that we just kept up with the partying and everything. However, we were out with some friends and got totally wasted. I climbed up on a car roof and it was in the middle of the winter so I slipped and fell on my wrist and face and broke my arm. I got to go with a cast for seven weeks. The next day when I woke up and looked in the mirror I saw my face which was totally trashed with stitches, a black eye and everything. And a cast on my arm! And I asked myself What have you done the last two years? I guess Are You Dead Yet could be translated as Have you got enough yet?.
But we had fun, Janne cuts in.
Yes, Alexi admits, we had.
We had too fun on the tours, laughs Janne. Maybe everyone werent in as bad condition, but what happened to Alexi made us think.
Oh yes. Children Of Bodom is still one of the rare bands that actually think its fun to tour, when many others complain over jetlag, monotony and being away from home. Not to mention the not so unproblematic with being together 24/7 during very long time. These are things that can consume the best fellowship and trivialities as snoring, gum chewing or choice of movie can cause conflicts of warlike dimensions. But not for the children of Bodom.
We get on fucking great with each other all the time, Alexi assures.
Like I said we even have too much fun, Janne agrees. It doesnt even feel like work anymore.
Hows that possible? Alexi does an attempt to an explanation of conflict solving à la Children of Bodom:
We tell each other without being rude. If someone does something you think is annoying you just say Stop that, dude and slap him, then its all good.
Janne tells me that they have toured with many bands that didnt seem to have fun and he wonders why they just cant seem to agree.
When we toured with Iced Earth they didnt have fun, Alexi remembers. Some guys, one of them their now ex-guitarist, came all the time to our tour bus because thats where the party was and he hung around with us all the time. But that created conflicts in that band. Jon Shaffer (Iced Earths rhythm guitarist and the prime mover) couldnt take it, he got pissed.
The guitarist wasnt allowed to be in our bus, Janne fills in. He was forced to hang around in their bus where everyone hated each other, ha ha!
Still not dead
Its nice that they get on so well with each other, but I think we got a little of track. It was the new album we were supposed to talk about. For example we want to know the children of Bodoms own views on it. Janne makes the conclusion it definitely is a progression since the last one, so much that even he is surprised.
Well never make the same album twice or some shit like that. But Im still so attached to the last record. I think that Hate Crew Deatroll is so fucking good that Im still trying to get used to the new record. Were probably just trying to figure out whats going on, ha ha! But we are very satisfied with the result. And the recording process was very easy and smooth.
Yes, Alexi agrees. For sure the easiest so far.
In what way?
We recorded and mixed it in six weeks. The last one was recorded in six weeks and then we mixed it in ten days or so.
Even Alexi has strong feelings for the precursor and has had difficulties with how to go on from it, it turns out.
I really love Hate Crew Deatroll and it felt like it would be very hard to top it. But then I realized that you cant think like that. And Im very glad that we could to do something completely different. Not completely different, theres a lot of same shit going on but its fresh. Its not Hate Crew Deatroll part 2.
Henkka tells me that when they first begun practicing the songs it sounded pretty much as usual.
That song is good. And this one and that one. But then when we were done recording it and had mixed it I got really surprised [in a positive way] by the result.
One good way to figure out if a record is good is to check how many times you can listen to it without getting tired, says Roope. Ive had the CD in the car for weeks and heard it I dont know how many times and its still not boring. Thats a fucking good sign.
How would you describe the difference?
Thats very hard, says Janne. Ive tried to figure it out
Try again, laughs Alexi.
Something thats different is the keyboards, says of course the bands keyboard player, We tried a little harder with it, with creating good sounds. More modern sounds.
Especially on the keyboard but also on the whole, Alexi agrees. Weve tried to be more open-minded about how to record an album. This time we were quite a lot in Jannes studio before [the recording] and tried out ideas. We would never have done like that two years ago, then it was only the standard sounds. This time we havent fallen back on whats right within metal, rather the opposite. Weve avoided the most common strings and bells. But sure, there are things like that too because you must have that.
Bull faeces
The last time I talked to Alexi he told me that he had gone through some tjurskit which had been the inspiration for the music on Hate Crew Deathroll. When I mention it and ask what has inspired Are You Dead Yet? he laughs.
Bullshit, ha ha! I mean, everyone has that sort of shit in their lives. Its unavoidable, its a part of life. But for my own Ive learned to get inspired of the stupid things that makes me pissed.
He explains it doesnt have to be the big things in life you get pissed of. It was different when he was young. The 18-year old who recorded Something Wild and saw everything through a juvenile angry red wrathshimmer and who wrote lyrics about slitting his wrists, downing pills and drinking booze has grown up and nowadays he gets the furious energy for the music and the lyrics from more ordinary everyday situations.
Now its more a mental condition, to be pissed. It could be anything, like getting stuck in the traffic or miss when youre playing playstation. You get that rush, you know. It doesnt have to be something big like when I was younger. But at that time I was more fucked in the head.
Are you wiser now?
Much wiser, ha ha! Much wiser!
The 7th October, which is just before this magazines going to the press, Nils Gustafsson got acquitted on the grounds of deficient evidence.
) No, but serioulsy, I've only got one test this week so I think I can get it done till the weekend. It depends on how picky I am with getting everything grammatically correct. (The journalists in these magazines allways seem to love playing with words, making it sound a little odd even in swedish...)
