Laiho had the first harsh metal vocals I ever heard. I haven't listened to CoB in a very long time, but I probably will now.

I also saw them live in 05 on that tour. In Montreal the opening bands were Amon Amarth and Trivium, like Unorthodox mentionned earlier.

Fell off the CoB wagon many years ago, but I still love their first three albums. 41 is no age to go. Off to a bad fucking start, 2021.

RIP to a killer guitarist and the lead of a band that played an important role in my developmental years as a death metal fan.

Man, this a shit start to the year.

On a side note, this is weirdly in-tune with him giving up the copyright to the rest of the band when Bodom broke up a while ago. Maybe he knew he was on a downturn?

Whooooooaaaa I just woke up and saw this title. Holy shit this was unexpected. RIP

No one ever listened to CoB for the lyrics but they were pretty revealing at times. "Relapse (The Nature of My Crime)" being a more recent example. Hate Crew Deathroll was my intro to more extreme metal, and though the band kind of lost me after Are You Dead Yet?, I continued to listen to the first four albums fairly regularly and got back into them with Hexed. I was really looking forward to hearing what he would do with Bodom After Midnight.

Jesus Christ.. Hard to believe we're saying goodbye to him like that so young. I remember my brother introducing me to Children Of Bodom with a burnt CD of songs from Hatebreeder and Follow The Reaper which had just been released, around 20 years ago when I was getting into metal. I couldn't believe my ears how great that was. Still, years later, I listened to their stuff from time to time to remind me of the quality musicianship and the good old times. I listened to their cover of "Don't Stop At The Top" just recently. This year is off to a terrible start.

I've been binging Bodom and Sinergy all day. Absolutely horrid to hear.

I thought of this too - seems like just yesterday I was facepalming thinking "how the hell do you lose grasp of the copyright to a band you'd had for THAT long???" but perhaps now there's more to the story. Or maybe it's just a really bizarre coincidence.

I'm actually curious as to how he passed but we might now know for some time. I still have my ticket stub back from when i went in 2004

Never liked COB but I know people who did and this sucks, guy was a metal celebrity

Sad news. I heard he was sick from all the drinking, but how is that possible to drink that much and die at 41?!?!? People even said he stopped drinking years ago! How much was he drinking if he quit drinking in his 30's and still died at 41? It just seems like it's not even possible to do that much damage from drinking by 41. I can see maybe if he was 51 but even that seems early from drinking. I've known heavy drinkers in my life and the doctors told them they might be dead by 60.

To me this is like hearing someone dying from lung cancer at 41 despite the fact they quit smoking years ago. How much smoking does one have to do to die by 41? Same with drinking. Just seems mindboggling!

Maybe suicide? He already tried once

Extremely saddened of this news.
Got into the COB wagon in 2001 with the release of Follow The Reaper. What a powerful band it was! Listening mostly to Metallica, Maiden, at the time. Yes, they opened horizons to a lot a people.
He will be missed. Too few younger guitar heroes with attitude like he had.
Early/mid 2000's tours were incredible to see Good memories.

This is one of the best live metal albums ever, in my opinion :

That is crazy to me. While I understand that people have problems in life and no one can get inside someone's head to see what they are truly thinking, I can't imagine wanting to kill yourself when all you have to do in life is play music and go on tour. Think of all the people working crappy thankless jobs with miniscule pay who don't kill themselves and keep grinding through life.

Just seems like he should've been so happy and content with his life. I just wonder sometimes what makes people who have easy lives want to end it all.

Depression is a mental health issue that doesn't really give a shit about your status in life, it can hit you whether you're working as a cashier at Walmart dealing with shitty Karens all day for minimum wage or you're a famous heavy metal guitarist with a lot of money. That being said, I doubt it was suicide. I keep wondering if it was cancer, he was looking quite skinny these last couple years.

Children of Bodom were one of the first bands I got into when I first started listening to metal, initially the album "Are You Dead Yet" and then "Follow the Reaper".

They were on tour with Slayer when I first saw them, I was in the pit while they were playing. Very fond memories of that concert.

So glad I got to see them when I did - a couple times when they played Reverb as well.

In 2012 when he had a stomach infection, could it be possible something arose from that? Perhaps it was cancer, and it's not unheard of for someone to keep that kind of diagnosis private (see also: Chadwick Boseman)

I believe it was around the time they recorded their first album, so he wouldn't have been touring or have made much money at that point. Not that life on tour is easy or anything.

Yeah, I used to know someone who made 100 grand a year and he would ask, "How can I be so depressed when I have all this money?" I said, "Maybe you'll feel better if you gave me some money" and he laughed.

Crazy how that happens.

He was also a HARDCORE alcoholic for decades, to the point of being hospitalized at least once, and I think he had a pretty lengthy history of injuries from stuff he had done while drunk. 41 is very young, but you can absolutely die that young if you have spent your entire adult life putting your body through the wringer.

Depression ain't that simple.

The realty of what you just said is about as illogical as telling a cancer patient to stop feeling sick, or telling someone their arm can grow back.

It's a thing that you can be born with, a chemical imballance.

It's very rare for me to feel a personal sense of sadness after celebrity passings like this, but this time I feel it. This man has pretty much been solely responsible for getting me into metal and the trifecta of Hatebreeder, Follow the Reaper and Hate Crew Deathroll still rank amongst my favorites after all these years. Alexi dying at such a young age is terrible and a huge loss for the entire metal scene. R.I.P.

I do hope we'll get to experience a little bit of what Bodom After Midnight would have been. Time will tell I guess.

Wow. I remember when Something Wild came out, it was a phenomenon, people and magazines were wild about this sound. I wasn’t getting into metal but it felt like something new and intriguing was hitting with these talented young guys (young at the time). Alexi is only a couple years older than me and that’s a sobering thought. Rest in Power man, I may not have always been a big fan of the music but you made quite an impact in so many young lives including mine.

Listened to Follow the Reaper earlier, and it's not my favorite sound anymore - but man I can still see how crazy and inventive that shit is compared to what else was going on at the time. They had a really unhinged energy to them, more of a "rock out" style, as opposed to many bands who tried to be all epic or sophisticated - all the while still having this very neoclassical style to them. It was an interesting blend. They clearly had a thing going on and I can respect it.

Way too young, goddammit. RIP.

As others said, quite a shock today.

I liked CoB quite a bit during my last year of high-school and early college days. Something Wild and Hatebreeder were on regular rotation back then. Never got much into Follow the Reaper, unlike one of my friend back then who viewed that album as some holy grail. I remember checking Hatecrew and not being much impressed either. The band changed, and me too I guess.

I remember the CoB/Trivium/Amon Amarth tour in 2005. Went to the Quebec City date, with my sister and her boyfriend. Due to some fuck-up from the venue/organizers, a good deal of people missed Amon Amarth. We were going for them and it pissed us off as when we finally were able to get in, there were 2 songs left... We then spent the Trivium show outside in the venue's hall chatting because we had zero interest in that band. Went back in to check CoB and we left after about 3 songs. Meh...

Anyway, even if I've lost interest in CoB years ago, I cannot deny that their first 2 were part of my youth and I had good time blasting these records. I'm spinning Hatebreeder for the first time in like 15 years and it still rips.

It's remarkable how many memories come flooding back reading these recollections. CoB were also one of the most important gateway bands for me. I think there was a minor metal explosion in the mid 2000s in the UK - think it's something to do with the popularity of new music channels in the first half of the decade: you had MTV2, Kerrang & Scuzz all appearing and playing harder music. A lot of people I knew got into metal at the same time. First edition of Metal Hammer magazine I got had a free CD which featured Children of Bodom, and I loved it so much I got their albums. Haven't listened to them in a long time but great memories nonetheless.

It's sadly not surprising to hear this news. The man seemed to always be in a poor state, and even recently reading the thread about him leaving CoB fans were mentioning that he appeared in poor health.

RIP Alexi min

Wow, this is tragic. I haven't listened to CoB much in awhile now, but they were definitely an important part of transitioning from being mostly just into the power and prog end of metal to getting into the more extreme side. Even after I adjusted to harsh vocals I was never crazy about his voice, but his guitar playing was amazing, and it has remained a part of my musical rotation because I still listen to Sinergy occasionally.

I saw him when it was them, As I lay Crying, God Forbid, and Municipal Waste. Maybe another band. But he had fucked his shoulder up, falling out of the bunk on the bus was the story but there were rumors of other shit, and told us all he could barely move his arm but he'd give it his best. I couldn't tell, he was ripping it up.

NP - Deadlight Warrior

Posting to say Sinergy fucking rules and is underrated as all Hell.

yeah really sums it up. big "let it rip" energy.

Something Wild is worth a relisten on that basis too.

I just saw this and, WHAT THE @%#$^$& ??? I didnt even know there was anything wrong with him! This really sucks. I do feel grateful for having gotten the chance to see him live in 2011, and jumping at the chance. He was an amazing talent at guitar.

Not even a full week into 2021

R.I.P. Alexi Laiho

Technically I think he died at the end of December, it's only just now coming out.

Definitely an under rated band. Was the chick his girlfriend?

I remember looking at a pic of him a few weeks ago and was thinking how super thin he was, but he was always pretty thin.

R.I.P.

This is sad. They said he had "long term health issues" but what were they? I assume they didn't have to do with covid because they didn't mention it but who knows.

Even though I wasn't very into their last few albums, Hatebreeder in particular is an excellent album which I always loved and which has a very particular feel to it that no other band or album has, and the funny thing is that I hadn't listened to it in probably years but about 2 weeks ago I decided to listen to the majority of the album after watching the movie "Bodom Lake" (decent movie, not great but ok).

They were definitely pioneers of their particular sound.

You're confused. The band already split up before Laiho died.

This.

Why do people hide causes of death? Will the dead man be embarrassed? Well, there was this dude in Greece who died of a turtle falling on his head. Certainly it can't be more stupid than that.

I reckon it's not cancer, because people who die of cancer are usually praised for enduring long times. I think it wasn't COVID-19 because they would want to point out how bad it is. Perhaps it was suicide, so family wouldn't want people to think Laiho was a dick. Still, I don't see why that would be relevant, the man is dead anyway.

I like CoB, even the worse discs are still underrated. I still listen to it, I find it funny everyone says they don't listen to CoB in ages.