Some of the stories that emanated from the band’s benders were hilarious; when interviewing Bodom bassist Henkka Seppälä in 2009, he regaled me with the story of how he had gotten in a New York City cab after a night out and insisted that he be driven home… to Helsinki, Finland. Others tales were more cautionary; in 2007 Laiho broke his shoulder at a bowling alley while drunk on White Russians. The penultimate tribute to The Big Lebowski left the guitarist unable to play for six weeks, and with injuries that reportedly will never fully heal. Asked about this facet of Children Of Bodom, Laiho states modestly, “we do like to party,” before elaborating on some of the band’s most memorable nights.
“There are a lot of good stories and good memories from being with Children Of Bodom when we weren’t on stage. And there are a lot of good stories that none of us can remember, and I’m sure those are the best ones.”
As if it wasn’t apparent that the band enjoyed a good time, the deluxe edition of the band’s latest album, Relentless Reckless Forever, included a cover of the Rick James-penned, Eddie Murphy-sung, new wave hit Party All The Time. Is Children Of Bodom still partying all the time? Are they still going out on the types of benders that would make Charles Bukowski seem like a lightweight?
“While we do still like to get up to some shit, things were definitely a lot crazier five years back. For myself, I know that I had to start taking it a little easier because shit just started to get out of hand a little bit. It was pretty fucking crazy for a while there. Between 2004 and 2006 I was drinking way too much, and it got to the point where it wasn’t fun anymore. Like it felt like we were on this never-ending tour and that got to a point where I wouldn’t get off the bus unless I had five shots of whiskey in me. And that wouldn’t get me drunk, it would just make me feel normal. Then I ended up in hospital because my stomach was fucking destroyed. I had to take it easier after that and I did, I still drink and everything, but I’m not like killing myself anymore.”
Getting his and his band’s penchant for partying in check, Laiho and the rest of his virtuosic quintet regrouped to write and record Relentless Reckless Forever, an album that demonstrates a marked improvement in the band’s song crafting. Seeing the band explore more melodic territory while retaining the seemingly mandatory guitar shredding, Relentless marks the groups most commercially successful album to date. As to how the band honed the unwieldy roar of 2008’s Blooddrunk into the refined melodies of Relentless, Laiho states that they were only trying to do something new and interesting.
“We never planned the band’s musical progression. We never sat down and talked about what the record should sound like, it just happened in a spontaneous and natural way. That’s something that’s really important in Children Of Bodom, we need to write like that so everything sounds fresh rather than planned.”
Of the ‘fresh’ Relentless Reckless Forever material, Alexi has found that hordes of Bodom fans around the world are most receptive to songs that showcase the band’s newfound sonic diversity.
“Shallow Knockout is one track that the crowd seems to be going really fucking wild for, which for me has been one of the most difficult songs from Reckless Relentless Forever to play live, or at least it was the hardest to master with the vocals and the guitars at the same time, but now that the whole band is comfortable with it, it’s kicking some serious ass when we play it live. Then another standout is Roundtrip To Hell And Back and that seems to be going over really well.”
Like how the band has managed to curb their partying ways and produce records that stand apart from the spectacle of debauchery, musically Bodom have evolved beyond being that band responsible for spawning a host of ‘death metal Britney Spears’ clips on YouTube. Now with their gem-laden back catalogue, marked by nuanced extreme metal, Alexi ends our conversation by reflecting how Bodom manage to compress all of that into a set when they take their show on the road.
“Now the set is quite diverse. We’ve got seven records out now so we have a lot of music to choose from when we tour. But let me tell you dude, it doesn’t get any easier to actually put the set list together. There’s so many songs that we would like to play but we can’t play all of them. But we try to do whatever we can to keep the fans that show up happy, we always play songs from every album, do old stuff and new stuff equally and mix the two together.”
