WILD AT HEART
Alexi Laiho was the kind of performer you didn’t forget in a hurry. On October 31, 1997, the frontman and his band, a then-unknown Children Of Bodom, were set to support Norwegian black metallers Dimmu Borgir in Helsinki. The show was a huge deal for Bodom. Dimmu were a much bigger name, having just released their third album, Enthrone Darkness Triumphant, while the venue, the Lepakko, was legendary in rock circles. They needed to make an impression.
“We could hear the opening band playing from backstage,” remembers Dimmu Borgir guitarist, Silenoz. “We were like, ‘Holy shit, what is this?’ It sounded like Yngwie Malmsteen on speed. We ran out and watched the spectacle and stood there with our jaws open…”
“There was this fucking beast on the guitar,” adds Dimmu’s then- keyboardist Kim Goss, who would go on to form power metal band Sinergy with Alexi in 1997, and marry him in 2002. “I was looking at our guitar player like, ‘I don’t know, man, you’ve got some competition…”
On January 4, 2021, when the news broke that Alexi had passed away, an outpouring of emotion ensued from the metal world. When we asked for contributions to a piece that would celebrate Alexi and his immeasurable impact on metal, we received more tributes and memories than we could hope to print in full. They all painted a picture of a man who was deeply loved and admired, and whose friendship and silly sense of humour touched everyone in his life.
“We had a secret language between us,” says Kim. “We went to Estonia together in 1998 and on the entire ferry ride there we spoke the entire dialogue of the first Back To The movie verbatim, not just word for word, but sound effects.”
