Finnish outfit Children of Bodom (COB) have taken what looks like a stellar rise to fame, particularly in their home country. But if you take a tiny step backwards, you can see that it’s taken them eleven years to get where they are today. Within those eleven years, the band has release six studio albums and one DVD, all in the same genre of metal with melodic elements.
“I don’t believe we did it quickly,” commented bassist Henkka Seppälä. “It felt like eternity. Our first years were really, really tough; in Finland we were famous quickly but the rest of the world was really slow. We got big first in continental Europe, and then Japan, and then worked up a solid fan base over many years in the States, and then years ago in Australia. We’ve been working quite hard.”
The hard work shows, if it can be judged by either numbers of fans or numbers of releases. Six studio albums in just over ten years is a lot of work, regardless of the band. Having heard that the label has put a lot of pressure on COB to continually churn out releases, I asked Seppälä how they cope with it now, but also how they coped with that pressure in the early days. “Yeah, that’s the problem! They would love to have us releasing albums as often as possible, but we tell them we need time. It doesn’t make sense to thrash them out.” But in terms of how they cope with the label’s pressure, Henkka said that it’s something they’ve learned to deal with. “It’s not hard – now that we’ve learned to cope with it. In the end we can tell them what we need and they listen to us because they respect the musicianship.”
Touring is a priority for Children of Bodom, and it’s something that the band does pretty constantly. They were last here in 2005, and are here again this year; last year they did a massive tour through America on the Gigantour. Given that the band has done so many tours, large and small, I figured that they’ve probably experienced the best and the worst of all that gigging has to offer. I wasn’t wrong.
“The last Montreal show was really good. We played with Megadeth, and there were about ten thousand people there. French Canada was amazingly good for us, and that show was just a flood of good experiences. It was one big crowd, and even though it was a huge hall the atmosphere was really intense, like a much smaller show.” And the worst? “Ten years ago we played in western Finland. It was a national holiday; the gig was in a small club, no promotion. Seven people paid to get in. I’ll never forget it; it felt really stupid.”
The band’s latest release Blooddrunk took the band almost ten months from the first rehearsal day to the final mix. The release has so far received mixed reviews, many of which are very positive. Hekker says that you can’t avoid the critics, but there’s also not much you can do about it. “What can you do? If you have to read it, it’s just like, ‘That’s his opinion’. You do it primarily for yourself, of course, that’s the main starting point anywhere. Otherwise it would be totally weird.” Seppälä paused, thinking about what would happen if they started writing for the fans instead of themselves. “I don’t know what it would come to…”
The band didn’t start out to please the critics – they were out primarily to make music that they would be happy with and proud of. “The only goal we had was just to make music we can be proud of, where we get to be satisfied with it. Whenever you manage to produce songs it’s a feeling you get from the fresh or new sound; it’s always amazing. So long as we get the same feeling every time, we’re all set. Otherwise, if new songs wouldn’t feel exciting and somehow really good when we’re composing them we couldn’t go on.”
The artwork for Blooddrunk is particularly striking; perhaps more so because it is the first time that COB have deviated from painted art for a release. Hekker had to think about how they pulled it all together, replying after a long pause. “We have one dude who usually does paintings, painted artwork. This time we had a friend of a friend who was a photographer and he was interested in doing something. I had a couple of meetings with him, he showed me what he has done and what could be done, so then we decided to try to go with a real photo. Yeah, and then we just discussed colours and the theme; it was quite smooth, and we’re really happy. We try to make it as democratic as possible, so I always get the sketches and show the band and get their opinions, and then try to figure out which direction to go in. Everybody was involved.”
The upcoming COB tour in Australia is close to selling out right around the country; Adelaide is already sold out, well ahead of the tour dates. The last time the band was here they had a great time and they’re looking forward to coming back. “We’re very happy to be able to come back. The only sad thing is that it’s winter at the moment. It’s summer here so it’s a little bit weird to go from beautiful summer in Finland and all the way to Australia where it’s cold!”
Children of Bodom bring their Blooddrunk tour to Australia this month.
Friday 20 June – The Arena, Brisbane (All Ages)
Sunday 22 June – The Palace Theatre, Melbourne (former Metro)
Tuesday 24 June – The Enmore Theatre, Sydney (All Ages)
Saturday 28 June – Fowler’s Live, Adelaide (All Ages)
Monday 30 June – Capitol Theatre, Perth
