Group

Children of Bodom

Finnish melodic death metal band

From: Espoo, Finland
Active: 1997–2019
Rating: ★ 3.6 (5 votes)
Releases: 52

melodic death metal
death metal
metal
heavy metal
power metal
speed metal
thrash metal

About

Children of Bodom are a Finnish melodic death metal band from Espoo, Uusimaa. Formed in 1993 as Inearthed, the final line-up of the group upon their split in 2019 consisted of frontman Alexi Laiho, drummer Jaska Raatikainen, bassist Henkka Seppälä, keyboardist Janne Wirman and guitarist Daniel Freyberg. The band released ten studio albums, three live albums, two EPs, two compilation albums, and one DVD.

The band's third studio album, Follow the Reaper (2000), was their first to receive a gold certification in Finland. Subsequent studio albums acquired the same status. Their next four albums each debuted at number one on the Finnish album charts, and have charted on the United States Billboard 200. They are one of Finland's best selling artists of all time with more than 250,000 records sold there alone.
In 2019, Children of Bodom held their last concert in Helsinki, named A Chapter Called Children of Bodom, before disbanding. Laiho and Freyberg carried on as Bodom After Midnight in 2020. Founding member and main songwriter Laiho died in December of that year.
In October 2025, the surviving members of Children of Bodom announced that the band would reunite to perform two tribute shows for Laiho in February 2026, with Samy Elbanna filling in for him on vocals and guitar. The band announced a permanent reunion on 10 March 2026, including plans to celebrate the 30th anniversary of their debut album, Something Wild in 2027.

From Children of Bodom on Wikipedia, under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Members

Alexander Kuoppala 1997–2004 · original member · former background vocals, guitar
Henkka Blacksmith 1997–2019 · original member · former background vocals, bass guitar
Jaska Raatikainen 1997–2019 · original member · former drums (drum set), percussion
Janne Warman 1997–2019 · original member · former keyboard, synthesizer
Alexi Laiho 1997–2020 · original member · former guitar, lead vocals
Roope Latvala 2004–2015 · former background vocals, guitar
Daniel Freyberg 2016–2019 · former guitar