tiistai 15. joulukuuta 2009

COB live in 2010

Although they've only recently completed 18 months of gruelling globe-trotting for Blooddrunk, and are soon to begin writing and recording a new album, Children Of Bodom (currently enjoying some well-earned downtime) already have some show dates in the diary for 2010 ...

April in Finland
They've spent a lot of time abroad recently, but to show their Finnish fans they're not forgotten, the band will play three dates in their home country in April, starting in Tampere on the 8th (enjoy your birthday, Alexi!) and continuing with Oulu and Vuokatti on the 9th and 10th. Tickets on sale now; check cobhc.com for details.

Grim and tr00 ... or just br00tal!
COB are also confirmed amongst the headliners for the 2010 Brutal Assault Festival, held on 12th-14th August in the Czech Republic.


The follow-up to the hugely successful Blooddrunk album will be the band's seventh studio recording. At the beginning of 2010 they'll start working on the new material in their rehearsal place, with the studio booked for early summer.

LA Chi Cheng benefit


As one door closes ... Alexi should have been in Houston with Hypocrisy on November 20th but even though the Swedish death metallers had been forced to drop off the Ensiferum tour due to visa problems, the COB frontman was not left kicking his heels. Instead, he took the opportunity to help raise funds for Deftones' Chi Cheng's medical bills, after a horrific car crash last year left the bassist in a coma for several months.


The Chi Cheng Benefit Show was held over two nights at the Avalon Theater in Los Angeles, and on the second night Alexi took to the stage as part of a veritable supergroup that included, as well as the Deftones themselves, musicians from metal's elite such as Shavo Odajian and Daron Malakian from System of a Down, Dillinger Escape Plan's Greg Puciato, Dave Lombardo from Slayer and no less than Metallica's Robert Trujillo, for a blistering performance of the opening track "Battery" from the seminal "Master of Puppets" album.


The two-night event was a huge success, and, together with the proceeds from an online auction, the goal of raising a six-figure sum for Chi Cheng is likely to have been reached.

The devil's in the detail ...

The much anticipated/abhorred (delete as appropriate, depending upon which fan-camp you happen to be in) Hypocrisy/Alexi Laiho collaboration due to roll across North America with Ensiferum from November to early December failed to materialise.

Just days before the tour was due to start, on November 6th, Hypocrisy issued a statement informing fans that their departure for the US was being held up due to problems with the US Immigration Service processing their work visas, but that they hoped to join the tour as soon as possible. As tour dates came and went without Hypocrisy, there were suggestions that two band members, the drummer and bassist, plus Alexi Laiho, were already in the US. Peter Tägtgren, however, remained marooned in Sweden. It seems that a small error in the spelling of his name on the visa application may have been the cause of his problems, and the band was eventually forced to drop off all the remaining dates and officially cancel the tour.

And the winner isn't ...



As the Scythes Of Bodom blog reported previously, Metal injection.net held a competition recently, in which entrants had the chance to win an ESP Alexi Laiho Signature Series Ltd AL-600, by impersonating Alexi in a video. We wondered whether Alexi would be one of the judges, and, sure enough, when the winner was announced at the beginning of December, it was revealed that Alexi had, indeed, sifted through all the entries and picked his favourite (who, incidentally, bore more than a passing resemblance to the shred-meister himself). Only problem was, the winner was not from the US, and was therefore ineligible (an alternative was hastily found) - doh!

Slave to the grind

Alexi Laiho is not the only COB member who, from time to time, lends his not-inconsiderable talents on other bands' albums. Roope Latvala has also been indulging in a little musical moonlighting, on the upcoming new release from Finnish Gothic/Black Metal outfit, Soulgrind. A former Soulgrind guest musician, Roope has helped out with a couple of leads on the band's ninth album, "The Tuoni Pathway". Commented Soulgrind's founding guitarist, Lord Heikkinen, "it took two months to complete ... nine tracks of beauty, heaviness and darkness ... it is one helluva album."

"The Tunoni Pathway" is expected to be released in early 2010.