21/09/2025
How I Started Listening to Metal.
Alexi Laiho (1979 - 2020
Children of Bodom. The band that had the greatest influence on my journey into the world of metal music. On the anniversary of Alexi Laihoâs passing in 2020 at the age of 41, I write this as a tribute to the man and the music that shaped so much of who I am.
Children of Bodom came into my life near the end of elementary school. Rock music had already made its way to me through my parents, but it was during a time when mobile technology was booming â when phone antennas were disappearing, color screens became standard, and infrared and Bluetooth were the hot new features. MP3 file-sharing quickly became common practice. It was through one of those exchanges, on a Nokia phone â how fitting, given the Finnish connection â that I first heard Bed of Razors.
One Monday evening, on my way to English class from my dadâs house, it was already dark. I put on my headphones, pressed play, and that song came on. Bed of Razors begins with keyboards â though I didnât know thatâs what I was hearing at the time. Then came the drums, the guitar â no way my headphones were good enough to pick up the bass â and then, the first shock hit me. I kept listening. The vocals kicked in. What struck me most was how the music was both heavy and melodic. The harsh vocals didnât scare me off â they intrigued me. I didnât skip to the next song. I was hooked.
Those were the best three minutes and fifty-five seconds of my young life. I walked to class with that song on repeat, thinking about how I could sneak in a listen during break, and how slow I could walk home just to hear it loop again and again.
I didnât care about the lyrics â I couldnât understand them, and I had no desire to. What mattered was that I needed more of that sound. After that initial shock, I realized I had found my musical identity. From that moment on, I was going to listen to metal. I was going to annoy the neighbors with what theyâd call ânoise,â and Santa Claus â also known as my dad â would bring me books and CDs for Christmas.
Years went by. One day in 2011, I spotted a poster on the street (not on Facebook, mind you), announcing a Children of Bodom concert at Gagarin, with Ensiferum and Machinae Supremacy. The iconic Grim Reaper logo caught my eye. I called my boyfriend at the time and told him â we immediately decided to go. He was more into Follow the Reaper, I was all about Hatebreeder. The rest fell into place in no time. I went downtown to buy hardcopy tickets for both of us. We planned to get Bodom t-shirts later so weâd look the part. I canât remember ever being so excited. Whether my parents would let me go didnât even cross my mind â I WAS GOING. I had already been to the Big Four concert in Malakasa in 2010. Gagarin wasnât going to stop me.
That show became one of the best concerts Iâve ever been to. Machinae Supremacy didnât quite click with me, but Ensiferum blew my mind with Lai Lai Hei. I already knew they were Finnish and listened to them, but hearing the crowd sing along in Finnish made me realize that music truly has no borders. We were barely grasping the English lyrics â let alone their meaning â but Finnish?! That was next level. And thatâs when I made another decision: I was going to learn the Finnish language.
Of course, Iâd already heard Kuolema Tekee Taiteilijan by Nightwish from their End of an Era live album, and MissĂ€ Miehet Ratsastaa by TerĂ€sbetoni at Eurovision in 2008. The influences were piling up.
Children of Bodom were phenomenal that night. Alexi Laihoâwith his signature ESP guitar, his distinctive stance, and those sharp âF**K!âs â left memories in my mind that will never fade. Hence this article.
As more years passed, Iâll admit their newer albums didnât hit me as hard as Hatebreeder or Hate Crew Deathroll. But that didnât mean they stopped being special to me. They returned for another show, but I didnât go â assuming thereâd be another chance. But⊠there wasnât.
In early January 2021, it was announced that Alexi Laiho had passed away. I was in disbelief. No, it couldnât be â he was so young! Denial set in. I scoured metal sites for updates, hoping the news was somehow wrong. But it wasnât. The sadness hit hard. I remember working the evening shift that day, telling everyone, âAlexi Laiho died. The guy who introduced me to metal!â Most coworkers didnât get it. But Miltos, a colleague who also listened to metal, understood. We talked and he told me how he felt when Chuck Schuldiner of Death passed in 2001 â the band that had gotten him into metal. We mourned a bit, and the shift passed.
On the way home, I felt a strange emptiness.
Iâm not someone who idolizes celebrities. I donât cry or fall apart whenever an artist dies. But Children of Bodomâs music led me to metal, to all its subgenres, to my love for Finland â the "motherland of metal" â and it taught me something vital: if a song gives you chills, keep listening. Explore the bandâs discography. Whether itâs one album or fifteen, listen to them at least once. You never know which song will leave a mark on you. And no, donât just listen to the hits.
If Alexi Laiho were still alive, this article wouldnât exist. I never had the chance to meet him. But Iâll always listen to Children of Bodom âthey are the foundation of my personal metal universe. Iâll always remember Wildchild as that slight figure with painted nails and eyes, radiating megatons of inspiration and unwavering dedication until the very end.
Kiitos, Alexi Laiho.
They ripped out my heart to show me how black isâŠ
The article was written by Danai Gouta on behalf of SingLoud TV II which is also available in Greek in the Levoton column
Cover Image: Miikka Skaffari/ FilmMagic/ Getty
