ALEXI LAIHO - died on 29 December 2020 after long-term health complications
Updated: Jun 26, 2021
Alexi Laiho bornt in Finland in 1979, guitarist, composer and vocalist. He was well known to have played in Children of Bodom.
Laiho started playing violin at the age of seven and guitar at eleven. In 1993 he formed Children of Bodom with drummer Jaska Raatikainen under the name of InertheD.
Children of Bodom played at the Metal Hammer GGA in 2008, Laiho received the Dimebag Awrd for “Best Shredder”, and he appears on Canadian thrash metal outfit Annihilator’s 2007 album as a guest.
In 2012 Children of Bodom had to cancel two concerts of their European Tour because Laiho get stomach pain and had been hospitalized.
In December of 2019, Children of Bodom played their last show at the Icehall in Helsinki, Finland. After this last concert was announced all members of the band except Laiho and Daniel had quit. Due a legal reasons, Laiho would need permission from his former band lads to continue using the Children of Bodom name.
In March of 2020 Laiho and Freyberg officially announced new band, Bodom After Midnight, named after the second track from album “Follow the Reaper.”
In 2004 he was ranked N0. 96 out of 100 greatest Heavy Metal Guitarists of All Time by Guitar World Magazine, also ranked him as one of the 50 fastest guitarists in the world.
Laiho received an Award by Metal Hammer Golden Gods, in 2008 in the category of Dimebag Darrell Shredder Award.
Laiho had a long history of alcoholism. In an interview in 2019, he talked about how pressures of life on the road affected him, he mentioned the song “This Road” and said:
"A lot of people thought it was about alcoholism, but it's more about being addicted to being on the road. Sometimes it feels like after 20 years of being on the road, everything just becomes kind of a blur and you don't know what the hell's going on."
Laiho died on 29 December 2020 after long-term health complications, leaving behind a few songs recorded with Bodom After Midnight to be published posthumously.
On 4 January 2021, a post on his official Facebook page stated Laiho died the previous week. No official cause of death was given, only stating he succumbed at his Helsinki home to "long-term health issues during his last years."The death date was later confirmed to be 29 December 2020. A private funeral service for Laiho was held on 28 January 2021.
Children of Bodom were named after an event had occurred in 1960.
Bodom it’s a lake in Oittaa, Finland, a big lake with measures, approximately three kilometres in length and one kilometre in width, was scenario of a triple homicide, when four teenagers two boys of 18 and two girls of 15, went on a camping trip to the lake and were mysteriously attacked while sleeping in their tent. Three were brutally killed and one miraculously survived. In June of 2005, the only survivor with the age of 60 in that year was charged with murdering his friends. In October of 2005 the district court found him not guilty of all charges against him.
The Finnish melodic death metal band derive their name from the lake. All the band members looked for good names in their local phone book. When they stumbled upon Lake Bodom, they felt it was a name with impact and one behind which was a story they found interesting.
