Children of Bodom TShirTS,

Children of Bodom PosTerS

MuSicCenTraL

Band and Artist TShirTS

Non Music TShirTS

Footwear

Instruments

Napster FREE 7-Day Trial

Children of Bodom is a metal band from Espoo, Finland. There is some contention regarding the band's genre classification, but in general the band's musical style can be described as a cross between melodic death metal, melodic black metal and power metal (earlier works). Their name was derived from the Lake Bodom murders.

Children of Bodom's earlier releases leaned towards a power metal style, but the band has since focused on a style more closely related to melodic death metal. The lyrics of Children of Bodom's songs are written in English and are most often concerned with the subjects of death/the grim reaper, personal struggles, war and the Lake Bodom murders. Recent albums have seen a shift to more antagonistic lyrics (songs such as "You're Better Off Dead" and "In Your Face") and a more straight-forward heavy metal style.

Children of Bodom was founded in 1993 by guitarist Alexi "Wildchild" Laiho and drummer Jaska Raatikainen under the name of IneartheD. Both musicians had known each other since their childhood and had shared an interest in heavy metal, especially death metal bands, such as Stone, Entombed and Obituary. Bassist Samuli Miettinen completed the initial line-up of Children of Bodom. IneartheD recorded its first demo, titled Implosion of Heaven, during August of the same year.

With the intention of promoting their upcoming release of Something Wild, Children of Bodom opened one of the shows from the symphonic black metal band Dimmu Borgir in late 1997. Their success was such that a representative from the Nuclear Blast label shortly approached them with a contract for a European release, a deal which started on the subsequent year.

The Children of Bodom second album, Hatebreeder, was recorded between the end of 1998 and the beginning of 1999. It was originally entitled Towards Dead End, but while in studio the members of Children of Bodom opted for the current title. To create anticipation in Finland, the '"Downfall" single was released two weeks prior to the album's release. It was accompanied by a new music video, once more directed by Mika Lindberg. Hatebreeder ultimately topped the charts in many European countries.

In July of 1999, the success of the "Downfall" single and Hatebreeder allowed Children of Bodom to schedule three concerts in Japan with Sinergy and veteran band In Flames. During two of these concerts the live album Tokyo Warhearts was recorded, and in it the band managed to seamlessly reproduce and at times improve on their songs, a notable achievement for a band with only two albums recorded previously.

In February of 2002, Children of Bodom began writing songs for their upcoming album, entitled Hate Crew Deathroll. Recording ensued during the month of August, and the album was released January 2003 in Finland. It remained on the top of the Finnish charts for a total of three weeks and subsequently became Children of Bodom's first gold album, even though all of their albums eventually reached this status, with Follow the Reaper reaching platinum status.