ALEXI LAIHO in memoriam
By now most of you know that guitarist/vocalist Alexi Laiho from Finland's CHILDREN OF BODOM passed away a little over a week ago. He was in some other acts of course but for me my connection to him was through the releases I have from CHILDREN OF BODOM. I think it is a tremendous loss since he was only 41. He had so much talent that you knew his career of creativity would last for a long time. Unfortunately that was not to be.
I'm not going to lie and say I was a huge fan CHILDREN OF BODOM. I also got into em around the middle of the band's career. But over the years what I heard was cool and the releases I eventually bought are memorable. But I'll have to go back to the beginning. Sometime in the mid-2000's I read an interview with Alexi Laiho in a metal magazine. At that time I just knew the band name but not any music. But the interview was cool to read and Alexi seemed like a troubled soul. And as we all know, troubled souls make great music.
So sometime later I was in a local record store and as usual I go straight over to the Metal section of the used CDs. That's where I found CHILDREN OF BODOM's Chaos Ridden Years Stockholm Knockout Live 2xCD. It was also at a great price. Someone screwed up on that one, even the guy at the counter questioned it.
But this was my introduction to a band who incorporated thrash, power metal as well as some melodic death metal into their overall sound. It also showed that Alexi Laiho was a shredder on guitar. After that I'd pick up another CD by the band every once in a while. I started with the early ones like Hatebreeder from 1999 and 2000's Follow the Reaper. Personally they're my favorites amongst the band's catalog.
As far as the more modern stuff I got 2008's Blooddrunk and Halo of Blood from 2013. Unfortunately that's where I stopped. The band did play a show nearby some years ago but I fucking missed it. So the closest to seeing Alexi Laiho and company light a stage on fire is by watching a live performance DVD. Prior to writing this I decided to re-watch it and was like damm this guy had talent oozing out of em. Damm sad loss to extreme metal and that's all I have to say.
Alexi Laiho 8 April 8th 1979 – late December 2020
