Children of Bodom, have, since their debut, been one of the most innovative bands in the scene. Thanks to their ability to mix Symphonic Black Metal, Melodic Death Metal and epic Power Metal to form their highly unique style, the Finnish group was able to gather fans from all sorts of musical directions and become an important representative of the whole evolution of modern Metal. The band first formed as Inearthed sometime in 1993 as some Power Metal/Black Metal hybrid, lead by Alexi Laiho (vocals, guitars, lyrics) and Jaska Raatikainen (drums). Back then, the only thing that kept them from being labeled as simply "Power Metal" were Laiho's fierce Norwegian-style shrieks and growls, but with time the band was able to blend the two styles beautifully, adding elements mainly present in Thrash and Death Metal into the mix as well. Eventually, Alexander Kuoppala (guitars), Henkka Seppälä (bass) and J.Pirisjoki (keyboards, later on replaced by Janne Wirman) joined to complete the band's line-up. Sometime during this period, the band changed their name to Children of Bodom, inspired by the tragedy that struck Finland in the 1960s (teenagers camping next to lake Bodom were slaughtered by some axe-bearing maniac). While the quintet was originally blamed for not sticking to a single genre and style of play, the stringwork done on the act's early work (such as their early demos, 1995's "Ubiquitos Absence Of Remission " and 1996's "Shining") was appreciated by true followers of the music. Indeed, the band's riffs and solos were higher than most band of the time's and allowed them to have a certain future into the mainstream. Children of Bodom's debut album, "Something Wild" was released in 1998 and, even though quite short, allowed the band to start achieving what they would have in the near future thanks to the full-length's two follow-ups: 1999's "Hatebreeder" and 2001's "Follow the Reaper". Following the success the band gained thanks to the aforementioned releases, especially thanks to it's over-the-top live shows, the project released "Tokyo Warhearts" as some limited Live album recorded in Japan during one of Children of Bodom's memorable live events. The band's popularity kept increasing as the word spread and the band eventually broke free into the 'extreme Metal' (and still quite restricted, even though highly satisfying) mainstream. "Hate Crew Deathroll" was released in 2003 and continued to display what the band had originally showed it's fans with the previous record.Management and Worldwide Booking byContinental Concerts & Management GmbHSchäferstrasse 33 A , 44147 Dortmund , Germanyinfo@continental-concerts.deBooking USA & Canada byNick Storch for the Agency Group USAnickstorch@theagencygroup.comBooking Finland byJouni Markkanen for King Foo Entertainment Ltd Oyjouni@kingfooentertainment.fi

Children of Bodom is a Finnish band from the city of Espoo, near Helsinki. The name of the band comes from one of the most famous Finnish murder cases of all time. (The murdering of three teenagers one night at Lake Bodom back in the 60's.)

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